Language and Culture of Medical Coders and HIM

What is HIM?

HIM stands for Health Information and Medical Records Management. Contrary to what many believe, HIM professionals are not medical transcriptionists, rather they are experts in the field of patient health information and medical records.

What is Database Management?

Databases consist of files, records, fields, columns, and characters. Managing, storing, retrieving, and protecting databases falls well within the HIM department personnel scope of practice. To accomplish this task they usually utilize a Database Management System (DBMS). DBMS lets them create, store, modify, sort, and retrieve the data.

HIM/Technical English Research Paper: Language and Culture of Medical Coders

Re: Language and Culture of Medical Coders«
from: CarolE on Yesterday at 03:04:32 PM

I am a HIM student at Davenport University. I presently am taking a Technical English class and have to write a research paper about the language and culture of Medical Coders. I would appreciate anyone from the Health Information profession to answer some or all of these questions and return them to me. The questions are listed below. I will need your name as I have to have this information APA cited. Thank you.

Carol Ewing
Davenport University HIM Student

Research Questions For Medical Coders:
1. What would you say is the most important aspect of working in the coding area of the Health Information Department?
2. Do you think that the other areas of the department understand a coders job really includes?
3. What are the top five areas you would suggest so a non medical person could understand the coder's language and culture in a Health Information Department?
4. What types of coding do you have to complete: inpatient, outpatient, laboratory, emergency , etc. or everything?
5. How many coders are there within your health information department?
6. What is the most important advise you would say to a future medical coder?
7. For other health information department employees:
8. What do you think the coder's job includes?
9. Were you ever a medical coder?
10. If no, would you be able to complete medical coding if your employee requires it?
11. If yes, why did you decide to move out of the coding area?
12. Which area did you move into?
13. Do you have much communication with the medical coders in a normal work day?
14. How are some words that you would use to describe the language of a coder?
15. How is the language that coders used different from those in other areas of the HIM department?
16. What are some words that you would use to describe the culture of a coder?
17. How is the culture of the coders difference from those in other areas of the HIM department?
18. List some examples:
19. Name some of the different type of areas within the HIM department?
20. What is the job description for a medical coder?
21. What type of education requirement do the coders in your place of employment have?

Buying Medical Billing Software

While we cannot make any recommendations on which medical billing and office management software to to use we can give you some examples of those we have used, and indicate which ones we liked. I liked Lytec, Web MD's Medical Manager, and ZirMed.

We don't know anything about the rest of medical billing software that's out there, but we know what to look for! (Much!) more tips on selecting Medical Billing Software that works:

* It has to produce AR reports on demand
* Individual insurance reports
* Individual account report
* Monthly payment report
* Monthly overpayment report
* Monthly adjustment report
* Monthly time payment report
* Debt collection report

It's important to ask about clearinghouses!

• When selecting a clearinghouse, make sure you find out how many insurance companies they send claims to
• Are you required to use their software, or one of your choice?
• How much will it cost you per claim to send to the clearinghouse?
• What reports will you get?
• Will you get a confirmation of receipt of claims not only by the clearinghouse, but also by the carrier?
• Will you get a claims adjudication report?
• If the claims were sent to the clearinghouse and the insurance company says the claim is not on file (NOF), what will the clearinghouse do to rectify this?
• Do they resend for free, or do you get a refund?
• Make sure your contract has a no-penalty termination clause and you can terminate for any reason without penalties.

Medical Billing Done From Home - HIPAA and CMS

Ever changing and new federal laws, such as HIPAA, and those regarding electronic claims submission make it a bit more difficult to take medical billing work home. However, many have overcome these unique challenges as they arise, and are following their dream working in a career they absolutely love.

What About HIPAA Rules?
As long as certain safeguards are in place, and there is a data backup plan, disaster recovery plan, and emergency mode operation plan, HIPAA has no objections to medical coding and billing staff working from home. Another important consideration in the medical coding and medical billing realm concern CMS (previously HCFA) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) regarding healthcare provider's in-house compliance plan.