Getting the right code for today's visit is hard enough.

But the insurance company will have codes from all the visits of all providers. If you pick a code at odds with the patient's previous history, you could trigger an audit/request of records/payment delay.

Putting clinical details into the diagnosis code is probably a good idea from the insurance industry's viewpoint, cause it makes it much easier to program their clinical guidelines into their payment blockade, but it will add significantly more time to every visit if you choose the diagnosis as I do.

Still, I assume that we are not going from 0 to full force on October, 2014. I assume there will be a transition where more and more specific codes are required to get payment promptly.

We may have to sell out to hospitals just to get coding help. A lot of borderline broke doctors out there.


Dan
Rheumatology