COMPARING MEDICAL BILLING AND CODING

COMPARING MEDICAL BILLING AND CODING








Professor: Tetyana Usenko
Olasunkanmi Oladele
Medical Billing and Coding Comparison
Term Project
Date Due: Week 12














Comparing Medical Billing and Coding
When it comes to medical billing and coding, often the idiom “Too many hands in the pot spoil the sauce” is applied when referring to the number of billing and coding specialists a healthcare practice employs. Medical coding and billing information is extremely sensitive in nature, and therefore should be handled with acute attention to detail and confidentiality. Many practices opt for one specialist with the intentions of restricting the amount of access to patient files and streamlining billing processes. Though the intent of protecting patient privacy is attained, having a single billing and coding specialist comes with the burden of sole accountability for a practice’s remunerations. Practices with larger volumes of patients run the risk of specialists being unfamiliar with specific information for patients, hindering them from catching any patient specific errors in recording, coding and billing. Furthermore, internal audits fall in the hands of one individual, which holds the specialist with the utmost expectation of integrity. Errors can be avoided with an active checks and balances system for accounting methods in the practice, it is ultimately the billing and coding specialist’s responsibility to see that patients and third party payers are billed accurately in accordance with state and federal laws. Perhaps the most complex of a medical billing and coding specialist’s duties is properly recording patient information and treatment codes (Adams, Norman and Valentine, 2002). It is imperative that this part of the process is free of error as it shapes the remaining steps in seeking payment for treatments. A single biller has the advantage of becoming very familiar with each patient’s treatments and schedules, allowing them to apply specific focus to the...

Similar Essays