Having had the opportunity to talk with the senior folks at AC, the use of MANDATORY was a poor choice of words.
From their perspective MANDATORY is from the {Payer Perspective} applies to those practices where the Doctor/Provider does all the coding themselves, and does it exclusively inside of AC.
Because our client practices represent more diverse configurations, several of them have already gone the route of coding outside of AC, or having other staff/outsource code the encounter and forward the complete chart for review and sign-off.
This may seem like a minor distinction, but I believe it is essential to taking a hand in the future of independent medicine.
Ever since my earliest conversations with Physicians and Providers, the complaint is that Payers, and the Government in particular, are infringing on the practice of medicine.
Rendering to the Payers what they will need so that the practice gets paid is NOT EQUAL to the Physician/Provider must now do MORE work (either during the visit, or after hours).
As a career systems guy, that is fundamentally the wrong approach; it can, and some cases, will be done, but at what cost to the Physician/Provider? At what cost to the quality of care?
I'll be doing a series on this subject, along with what practices are doing to excel in-spite of increased Payer interference.
/rant off - SMH
