The Standards Of Ethical Coding

Confidentiality in the Healthcare arena can be simply defined as the moral and ethical duty of the Practitioner to keep all the patient’s bio-data under lock and key, and offer a disclosure of those facts that the patient is legally mandated to disclose or deems fit to enhance their positive health outcome. According to the Segen’s Medical Dictionary, “Confidentiality is the ethical principle that a physician may not reveal any information disclosed in the course of medical care, unless the patient who disclosed that information poses a threat to him, herself or others’’

"Medical coding professionals provide a key step in the medical billing process. Every time a patient receives professional health care in a physician’s office, hospital outpatient facility or ambulatory surgical center (ASC), the provider must document the services provided. The medical coder will abstract the information from the documentation, assign the appropriate codes, and create a claim to be paid, whether by a commercial payer, the patient, or CMS." (Aapccom, 2015) It is very important that billing coders have a full understanding of how to properly use medical codes to prevent denial of claims submitted.

In my request for written documentation due to management advisement not to query, I would include the AHIMA Standards of Ethical Coding, highlighting lines 4, 6, 9 and 11. I would also express my concern that this could possibly cause me to lose my credentials. Consequently, if a manager refused to provide me written direction

All of the staff need to make sure that confidentiality is paramount. Staff have to read and understand the Data Protection Act of 1998. We have to make sure that we are clear about our standards of conduct, that we are expected to meet. We are encouraged to use the codes of conduct to maintain our own practice

What disciplinary action would you take if you found that a coder violated the Standards of Ethical Coding?

The second standard of Ethical Coding is to report all healthcare data elements required for external reporting purposes completely and accurately, in accordance with regulatory and documentation standards and requirements and applicable official coding conventions, rules, and guidelines. Under this standard, a coding professional should first adhere to the ICD coding conventions, official coding guidelines approved by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), American Hospital Association (AHA), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the CPT rules established by the AHA, and any other official coding rules and guidelines established

According to Bryant (2017) examples of ethical coding principles include applying accurate data, reporting only correct codes, refusing to skew data, maintaining confidentiality, maintaining integrity, and no participating in inappropriate activities. Supervising If I were a coding supervisor, I would place great emphasis on the Standards of Ethical coding in my area. Making sure to review them with all staff

The ethical codes I have chosen to review are the National Organization of Human Services (NOHS) codes because they are most appropriate for what I am studying. The ethical code, that is provided by the NOHS, is very important to know and understand. As a human service major, I consider the code of ethics to be part of my life in ethical decision making. They protect the rights of the client and the worker. They create guidelines, in which you should follow for standards of practice. In the human service field, my job may be to assess a client’s needs or create a treatment plan. During which time, there must be certain behaviors and needs that are brought to a client, by me. The standards are put in place to make sure everyone is treated fairly

The major responsibility of a Medical Coder is to add standardize codes to test, treatments, and procedures in the patients records for the medical biller to use the color report to collect the payments from the insurance provider and the patient.

This article look at the compliance of medical coding and how it affects the health care industry. Coding compliance has come in effect primarily in the 1990’s. The article basically looks at defining ethics and it involves coding and complying with the guidelines. The article looks at procedures for coding. Coding procedures are usually designed to fit the needs of the particular settings. According to the article some codes are general straight forward. However in some health care setting codes have to justified or clarified with more information. These codes may need modifiers to make the adjustment.

Confidentiality is a concept of vast importance for professionals in the medical field. It is a professional obligation in this field and is considered to be an ethical concept that falls in line with integrity, compassion, veracity, charity, and fidelity as explained in both the International Council of Nurses Code for Nurses (1973) and the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics (1985). However, in today’s ever growing world of technology and demand for information, challenges continue to arise that force doctors and nurses to reexamine virtues such as confidentiality.

Breaches in confidentiality can have a harmful impact on information causing serious implications in potential patient outcomes. It is the duty of a cancer registry professional to keep patients information private and used for only the means it is intended. Patients have the right to privacy and their medical record should not be shared without the consent of the patient. The question formed for research involves the role of a Health Information Management (HIM) practitioner in regards to confidentiality within the code of ethics of cancer registries. Protected Health Information (PHI) is personal information in a patient’s chart that is private and not to be shared without consent from that patient. “Under HIPAA, Protected Health Information

The HIE has privacy and security concerns. There is a privacy rule that all employees and health care providers should abide by. If you see a medical record in view where patients or others can see it, cover the file, or turn it over. When speaking about patients, try to prevent others from overhearing the conversation. Conversations about patients should be held in a private area.

The main points of the eight canons are that as an ASCE member one should hold safety paramount, serve with competence, act as a faithful agent, have a reputation by merit, uphold professional honor, continuing professional development, and treat all persons fairly. The ASCE code of ethics is a model for moral and ethical conduct but can only serve as such when it is examined, and its contents are understood.

Privacy and confidentiality are basic rights in our society. Safeguarding those rights, with respect to an individual’s personal health information, is our ethical and legal obligation as health care providers. Doing so in today’s health care environment is increasingly challenging (OJIN, 2005).