preview

An Explanation Of How Billing And Coding Works For Healthcare Services Essay

Good Essays

B. An explanation of how billing and coding works for healthcare services
Medical billing and coding are two closely related aspects of the modern health care industry. Both practices are involved in the immensely important reimbursement cycle, which ensures that health care providers are paid for the services they perform. For the sake of simplicity, let’s divide the two at the moment and look at them as separate pieces of a larger process. We’ll begin with medical coding.
Medical Coding- Medical coding, at its most basic, is a little like translation. It’s the coder’s job to take something that’s written one way (a doctor’s diagnosis, for example, or a prescription for a certain medication) and translate it as accurately as possible into a numeric or alphanumeric code. For every injury, diagnosis, and medical procedure, there is a corresponding code. There are thousands and thousands of codes for medical procedures, outpatient procedures, and diagnoses. Let’s start with a quick example of medical coding in action. A patient walks into a doctor’s office with a hacking cough, high production of mucus or sputum, and a fever. A nurse asks the patient their symptoms and performs some initial tests, and then the doctor examines the patient and diagnoses bronchitis. The doctor then prescribes medication to the patient.
Every part of this visit is recorded by the doctor or someone in the healthcare provider’s office. It’s the medical coder’s job to translate every bit of relevant

Get Access