Health information coding is the transformation of verbal descriptions of diseases, injuries, and procedures into numeric or alphanumeric designations. The coding process reviews and analyzes health records to identify relevant diagnoses and procedures for distinct patient encounters. Coders are responsible for translating diagnostic and procedural phrases utilized by healthcare providers into coded form procedure codes that can be utilized for submitting claims to payers for reimbursement. A joint effort between the healthcare provider and the coder is essential to achieve complete and accurate documentation, code assignment, and reporting of diagnoses and procedures.
Job Duties
Reviews the content of the medical records from multiple EHR's and on-site for both hospital and professional inpatient or outpatient records to identify principal diagnosis, secondary diagnoses and procedures performed.
Carefully reviews details of documents such as laboratory findings, radiology reports, various scan reports, discharge summary, history and physical, consultations, orders, progress notes and other ancillary services treatment records needed to ensure all pertinent diagnoses and procedures are recorded.
Failure to properly identify diagnoses and procedures may have a dramatic negative impact upon payment received by The Health Plan.
Assigns codes based on hospital and professional coding guidelines, Coding Clinic directives, federal regulations, CCI coding initiatives, CPT Assistant or other standard coding guidelines.
Provides material to the RACE team to educate physicians as needed to clarify documentation within the patient's record to facilitate complete and accurate coding.
Assists in decision making relevant to physician coding education and HCC targeting purposes.
Provides encoder software and EMR (EPIC) expertise and uses these tools along with their knowledge in the anatomy and physiology of the human body and disease processes in order to understand the etiology, pathology, symptoms, signs, diagnostic studies, treatment modalities, and prognosis of diseases and procedures to be coded.
Ensures strict confidentiality of financial and medical records.
Develops and maintains expertise in non-EPIC EMR systems as deemed appropriate by the Chart Retrieval team.
Updates and corrects historical file data by submitting delete files and notifying the RACE team.
Work is typically performed in an office environment. Accountable for satisfying all job specific obligations and complying with all organization policies and procedures. The specific statements in this profile are not intended to be all-inclusive. They represent typical elements considered necessary to successfully perform the job.
*Relevant experience may be a combination of related work experience and/or completed specialty training program (1 year of specialty training = 1 year relevant experience).
This posting reflects an opening for Coder III and we are seeking candidates for that position. Geisinger reserves the right to consider applicants for higher levels of this role to include Coder IV and Coder Senior based on their skills, qualifications, and experience. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply.
Position Details
Minimum one of these coding certifications is required: CPC - Certified Professional Coder
CRC - Certified Risk Adjustment Coder
RHIT - Registered Health Information Technician
Education
High School Diploma or Equivalent (GED)- (Required)
Experience
Minimum of 5 years-Relevant experience* (Required)
Certification(s) and License(s)
Certified Risk Adjustment Coder - American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC); Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) - American Health Information Management Association; Certified Professional Coder - American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC)
OUR PURPOSE & VALUES: Everything we do is about caring for our patients, our members, our students, our Geisinger family and our communities. KINDNESS: We strive to treat everyone as we would hope to be treated ourselves. EXCELLENCE: We treasure colleagues who humbly strive for excellence. LEARNING: We share our knowledge with the best and brightest to better prepare the caregivers for tomorrow. INNOVATION: We constantly seek new and better ways to care for our patients, our members, our community, and the nation. SAFETY: We provide a safe environment for our patients and members and the Geisinger family We offer healthcare benefits for full time and part time positions from day one, including vision, dental and domestic partners. Perhaps just as important, from senior management on down, we encourage an atmosphere of collaboration, cooperation and collegiality. We know that a diverse workforce with unique experiences and backgrounds makes our team stronger. Our patients, members and community come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and it takes a diverse workforce to make better health easier for all. We are proud to be an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or status as a protected veteran.
We are an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer Women and Minorities are Encouraged to Apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability or their protected veteran status.
At Geisinger, our innovative ideas are inspired by the communities we serve – like our Fresh FoodFarmacy, a program that delivers life-saving healthy alternatives to patients with diabetes. With additional tools like our MyCode Community Health Initiative, one of the first health system genome sequencingprograms, and our new asthma app suite that we developed in partnership with AstraZeneca, it’s no wonder we’re ranked one of the Top 5 Most Innovative Healthcare Systems by Becker's Hospital Review. We continually work towards continuous improvement in a culture where everyone has a voice and firmly believe that better begins with all of us.Founded more than 100 years ago, Geisinger serves more than three million residents throughout central, south-central and northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. Our physician-led system is comprised of 30,000 employees, including 1,600 employed physicians, and consists of 1...3 hospital campuses, the Geisinger Health Plan, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and two research centers. What you do at Geisinger shapes the future of health and improves lives – for our patients, communities, and you.