Medical Coding

Medical coding is becoming more and more complex by the day. State and federal legislation, including the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, have brought about changes in multiple medical coding sets over the past few years and more changes surely are on the way over the next decade with the implementation of federal healthcare reform. ICD-10 alone will increase the number of diagnosis codes from 13,000 to 68,000 and the number of procedure codes from 11,000 to 87,000. iATROS Healthcare Solutions stays ahead of game with a staff of healthcare professionals who keep up-to-the-minute on all changes and trends in medical coding rules and regulations.

The Sunshine State represents a particularly volatile market for medical coding. Florida's recession-driven surge in Medicaid enrollment has driven up the state's program costs by more than $4 billion. In 2010, the state will spend nearly $19 billion - a figure that equals 28% of Florida's annual budget - to cover 2.8 million people living in Florida. Medical coding professionals throughout the state not only are flooded with a boost in the sheer number of new Medicaid claims, but also are burdened with a flood of regulatory and procedural changes affecting the industry.

In a survey titled "The Work of a Coder" conducted by the American Academy of Professional Coders, 26.6% of medical coding professionals indicated that they often were expected to code outside of their expertise. And 26.7% indicated that coders in their offices lacked adequate time to research coding and compliance issues. Coders surveyed also indicated that 30.4% of the E/M coding and 27.9% of the ICD-9-CM coding handled by their practice's providers is inaccurate and that providers and employers are not always pleased when medical coding professionals change their data. Likely, the majority of these inaccurate codes are honest mistakes, but often they are proven or suspected to be fraudulent efforts to land higher reimbursements from Medicaid and insurance companies. This makes accurate medical coding in Florida all the more important.

Running a successful medical practice in today's world is tough enough. As watershed changes occur industry-wide and the federal healthcare reform engines begin turning, iATROS Healthcare Solutions offers a full slate of revenue cycle management services to help your practice increase workflow efficiency, patient satisfaction and revenues. Our services include Florida medical coding and billing, patient scheduling and pre-verification of insurance coverage, EMR conversion and consulting and more. We'll help you navigate the industry changes, protect your practice from fraud and make sure you're prepared for compliance and fraud audits and for the 2013 EMR conversion. If you're looking for ways to ensure you're maximizing your reimbursement, call iATROS Healthcare Solutions at (877) 900-6763.