I Hate Coding--Any Resources

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umsami

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Sadly, other than working at the VA or moving to Canada, coding seems to be a necessary evil to master. I hate it with a passion. Does anybody have any good resources to recommend? Courses, flow charts/check lists, references, etc?

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Sadly, other than working at the VA or moving to Canada, coding seems to be a necessary evil to master. I hate it with a passion. Does anybody have any good resources to recommend? Courses, flow charts/check lists, references, etc?

At academy this year I actually signed up for a coding course, it was actually pretty good. I've also been asking for pointers from my colleagues that have been doing it for a while. The academy website is also a good resource.

Best of luck...and you're right, it's a totally necessary evil!!!
 
At academy this year I actually signed up for a coding course, it was actually pretty good. I've also been asking for pointers from my colleagues that have been doing it for a while. The academy website is also a good resource.

Best of luck...and you're right, it's a totally necessary evil!!!

Thanks, I was wondering if the Academy's course was any good. It's tough to get oneself to sign up for coding, when there's a lot more interesting things out there--but now, after being in private practice, I realize I need to bite the bullet and do it so that my practice life will be easier.

I think my State Ophtho society has a coding course coming up at their Annual meeting too. I may check it out. :)
 
You really need to try and embrace coding. As irritating as it is, it's how you get paid. The more you know about it, the better you will get paid, and the less chance you will have of being flagged and audited. Don't just rely on your staff to learn it all.

That said, we just had someone from Corcoran Consulting come in to talk to us about ophthalmic coding. Was definitely worth the money (I'm in a 7 doc group). There were multiple areas that we were missing out on revenue, either from down-coding or not using appropriate modifiers. Conversely, there were a few areas where our coding could have gotten us flagged.

Whether or not you have a consultant come in, you should definitely have a coding specialist in your practice. That will be one of the most important people on your staff. We have someone who screens charts every day, making sure our documentation matches our coding. Sometimes, she comes to us with up-codes and other times with down-codes. This also helps the techs and the docs refine their documentation. This person can also keep up with and apprise you of any changes to the system.
 
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