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Is your medical practice working to its full potential or are you experiencing continuous claim denials? One of the weak links in your billing process might be your coding team. Medical coders play an important role in the success of your practice. The more productive and efficient they work, the better your medical billing process.
In worst cases, inaccurate coding can lead to continuous insurance payment delays and claim denials until the coding errors are noticed and corrected. With that in mind, no healthcare provider wants to experience the stress or risk of losing their revenue.
To avoid all these problems, we have compiled the best tips for maintaining productivity with new medical codes. You can start implementing them from today. Let us delve into the blog for better understanding
Establish High Standards for Productivity
When recruiting and onboarding new coders, it is important to let them know about the company's benchmark. Talk to the medical coders working currently in your organization about the new standards you set to give them a clearer idea of what you expect from them.
Explain in detail the coding systems used in the company and emphasize the importance of prioritizing accuracy over speed. This is because it takes more time to discover a coding error and correct the mistake.
According to reports, new medical coders should be able to code between 10 to 13 cases every hour. This is approximately 80 to 104 cases per day if the coder is working for eight hours. The cases they code increase as they become familiar with the codes and develop strategies to code more efficiently.
Understanding the Software
When coders do not understand the software, it is a direction towards slower work, inefficiencies and errors in the medical billing process. All this can lead to unwanted denials and slower payments. Therefore, you need to train your staff in the intricacies of the software they are using.
A well-trained staff have a strong understanding of how to use the software. This approach improves productivity and avoids unnecessary mistakes.
Schedule and Prioritize Tasks
Teach your medical coders to always prioritize the most important coding tasks. Handling a task that is time-consuming and complex task at the beginning of each day is better because the brain is still fresh and functioning at its best.
You can also use a task management tool to divide tasks into categories to help your coders determine which tasks are the most important to tackle first. These tools divide tasks into the following categories:
- Important and urgent
- Important, non-urgent
- Urgent but un-important
- Unimportant and non-urgent
Create a Checklists
Creating a checklist for the coding team explains every step in your coding tasks to them. This stops them from missing any important steps in the coding process while maintaining consistency in data management.
Use the Right Software
The best way to make your coders productive in your billing process is by using the right software like Unify Medicraft. Software with a very complicated interface with little to no customer support will make it difficult for your coders to perform at their peak. A good medical billing software will ensure your staff has a complete understanding of the software with continuous support.
Education and certification
Provide your coders with continuous training and certifications to help them excel in their work for your practice. This will also improve their productivity and make them professional coders in the long run.
Insurance Verification
Insurance verification is a very important step healthcare providers need to take before treating their patients to ensure payment. By allowing your front-line staff to verify patient insurance eligibility, you reduce the workload of your coders, and they do not have to spend valuable time on claim denials. This also increase medical coder productivity in health care.
Streamline Claims Processing
Filing hundreds of individual claims every hour can be time-consuming and mentally exhausting for your coders. Improve their productivity and make their work easier by streamlining claims processing. It also allows them to categorize billing claims according to the payer and file in bulk.
Minimize Distractions
Distraction is inevitable in life but can be minimized in the place of work, especially when you are working as a medical coder. Do not allow your coders to use things such as radios, TVs, phones, and tablets when they are coding. Every device must be turned off so that they can stay efficient.
Integrate Electronic Health Records
Integrating Electronic Health Records with your billing and coding software gives your coders instant access to all the patient's data and clinical documentation without going through multiple systems. This improves code accuracy, reduces claim delays, and ensures coders do not miss any key details that can cause claim denial.
Set Realistic Expectation
With the difficulties and challenges faced by many coders, it is necessary to always set realistic expectations for your new coders. Ensure the work is equally distributed among your coders so that no one is overloaded. This creates an inclusive and supportive workplace culture while encouraging different learning techniques and giving them time to improve on their performance.
Outsource RCM Services
Your medical coders should not be the ones answering phones and doing other administrative tasks in your practice. Their priority is ensuring the right code is submitted for your patient's insurance medical billing process. Outsource your revenue cycle management to a professional who can manage the task for you. Doing this allows your coders to focus on their core coding tasks without being distracted by not-so-important responsibilities.
The Bottom Line
Maintaining productivity with new medical coders does not mean increasing their stress and worry. By implementing the above tips, you will help your new coders work more efficiently, meet your expectations, overcome challenges and reduce coding errors.
Ready to transform your medical billing efficiency? Unify Medicraft is medical software that helps coders improve productivity, achieve better accuracy and faster processing. Increase your revenue by reducing claim denials with Unify Medicraft.