Coding and Billing in Residency

[greenteam]

Our program requires us to spend an hour after clinic filling out coding and billing forms for all the patient encounters of the day. Is this commonplace?

Is there a ACGME Milestone or other such requirement that states that residents should be spending time submitting billing codes? I understand that there is a competency for "accurate and thorough completion of medical records" but does this kind of work qualify?

Thanks.

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[MstaKing10]

Not sure about acgme compliance but I wish we would have gotten some training on this in my residency and fellowship. Good to have this under your belt now before you graduate. As long as you get feedback to learn from your mistakes and understand that the codes will change by the time you graduate, I think this is a reasonable learning opportunity and not just scut work.

That said, why doesn't the billing get done right after each patient encounter? It only takes a few seconds and would likely be more accurate and not require time after clinic to review the chart and fill out the billing. Seems very inefficient.

 

[DrZeke]

Depending on the EMR - it does not take seconds....


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[LightBox]

As long as you are getting good feedback on whether you are coding correctly (or not), then I don't think it's a waste of time. But I agree: you should be filling out a billing form immediately after each patient encounter. Takes about 10 seconds to do.

FYI: many academic-types have no clue how to code properly... use modifiers... etc