How to Find an Ideal Medical Coding Company

You may find this question repeating itself in your mind if you are struggling to meet your coding requirements with your existing in-house team. Medical coding is an intricate process that should be handled very carefully and with utmost professionalism. That is why many healthcare providers falter when it comes to accurate medical billing and coding, and decide to outsource this complex task to a reliable medical coding company.

Medical Billing and Coding Challenges

Let us take the example of a radiology coding. Now, there are challenges highly specific to coding for the radiology specialty. Diagnostic radiologists read and interpret a large number of studies. Their dictations therefore usually comprise only a few words, which makes it difficult for coders. Orders from physicians needed to determine the medical necessity of the diagnostic study may be unavailable. Sometimes there is high confusion regarding what was ordered and what was performed actually. Among the toughest challenges are using modifiers accurately, and identifying obsolete diagnostic and procedure codes very often used by hospitals/imaging centers that don’t stay updated. When coding is done in-house by professionals who are not trained, these challenges swell to mammoth proportions and lead to erratic coding.

What Is the Solution?

The practical solution is to find a professional medical coding company with many years’ experience in the field. However, choosing the ideal medical coding services is not easy. While it is true that outsourcing brings benefits such as improved revenue, reduction in workload and better performance, hiring a medical coding company is a serious task. To ensure maximum reimbursement via submitting claims devoid of any errors, the partnership should be with an experienced medical billing firm.

Understanding your actual requirements is important before searching for a service provider. The hired medical coding firm should be able to efficiently handle your medical coding. For diagnostic radiology coding, you must be ensured the services of a team of certified coders specialized in diagnostic radiology coding. They should be able to provide accurate coding services for subspecialties such as CAT, MRI, PET, ultrasound and mammography, following the related coding guidelines and regulations.

Identifying the Right Medical Coding Services

Whether radiology or any other medical specialty, there are some general guidelines you can follow to ensure that you are teaming up with the ideal outsourcing partner. Interacting with their staff and questioning them will help you learn more about their coding proficiency and experience. Here are a few questions you can ask your provider.

• Is the company aware about the applicable regulations?
• Does the company update itself on policy and code changes?
• Which procedures and diagnoses has the company coded the most?
• How many cases dose the company code every day?
• What is the company’s accuracy rate in terms of coding?
• Is the company a certified one?

Some Important Factors to Take into Account

• Accuracy: A great amount of accuracy is required when coding medical diagnoses and procedures. It is the only way of ensuring maximum reimbursement. Checking the company’s statistics will give you an idea about its accuracy percentage.
• Security: Importance should be given for maintaining the confidentiality and security of sensitive patient information. Find out what reliable security measures the medical coding company has in place.
• Data should be available round-the-clock: A reliable company is one which provides round-the-clock accessibility to data, apart from ensuring accuracy and security.
• Experience: One of the major factors to be considered before hiring the services of a medical coding company is their experience. Company with long-term experience will ensure coding in compliance with federal government standards and payer requirements.
• Reliability: Make sure that the company enjoys a good reputation. Only such a company can provide consistent services and excellent ROI.
• Technological aspects: As usage of the latest equipment and technology is important, check whether the hired firm is utilizing the same. Also, whether, they have the required state-of-the-art infrastructure.

Look for a company that can code your reports within your required turnaround time. Reputable providers even offer free-of-charge service to identify your documentation deficiencies and thereby help to improve the quality of your medical records and increase reimbursement. Choose medical coding services that are customized and affordable, help to improve coding accuracy and reimbursement, and reduce your compliance exposure.

OSI provides RCM services for dental and medical practices of all sizes and specialties. Services include billing, insurance verifications, prior authorizations, coding, A/R management and more.