Medical coding is the first step in the medical billing process. When a patient receives treatment in a doctor’s office, the proper medical codes must be assigned in order to bill the patient or the insurance company. But which medical codes should be assigned in any given case? That’s where your medical coder comes in. Being a medical coder is sort of like being a detective. An experienced medical coder is able to aggregate information from a variety of different sources.
In order to find and assign the correct medical codes, they will check doctor’s notes, the patient’s medical history, laboratory tests, and imaging studies. Next, the medical coder will convert rendered services into CPT, ICD-10, and HCPCS codes. Finally, the medical coder must assign the correct codes so that the medical billing company or biller can accurately bill the patient or insurance provider. An experienced medical coder is able to decipher the mysterious written documentation of medical records, assign each procedure its appropriate medical code, and accurately determine which codes each procedure requires for medical billing.
Since medical coding is the first step in the medical billing process, working with experienced medical coders is crucial to your practice’s overall financial success.
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