Coding skills and physicians

Physicians Practice November 21, 2023
Jesse D. Bracamonte, DO, FAAFP, Michael Underhill, DO, Chris Pullins, MD

Coding skills do not inherently equate to clinical competence, and vice versa, but both are necessary.

Clinicians today are confronted with an increasing administrative burden alongside their patient care responsibilities, and a critical aspect of this burden is medical coding. This skill is crucial as it serves multiple purposes, including meeting billing standards affecting reimbursement, complying with quality metrics set by health care organizations and insurance companies, and ensuring the accuracy of diagnoses in billing records. However, the task of coding accurately can be daunting, especially with the transition to ICD-10 in 2015, which brought about a significant expansion in the number of available codes.

One major challenge clinicians face is justifying their coding choices, particularly in time-sensitive situations, such...

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