Medical Oncology Coding: How To Refine It For Your Practice
Posted on: 29 November 2022
If you plan on starting a new oncology practice to help diagnose and treat cancer for patients, then the coding side of this business is key to refine. You can do so — even early on — if you take these actions with your coding practices.
Verify Patient Information is Accurate Before Storing It
Your oncology practice will store a lot of patient information in its system but before doing so, make sure it's accurate. Then your practice won't enter in the wrong data and thus face coding errors later on down the road. You just need to take your time reviewing the documents that patients fill out.
Pay particular attention to insurance details, such as which insurance they have and how their deductibles are supposed to work. You can then store accurate information in your system and subsequently set medical coding up for success.
Make a Note of Coding Guideline Changes
Something your new oncology practice needs to always remember is medical coding guidelines can change. They can change multiple times in a single year in fact. For this reason, make sure your staff acknowledges these guideline changes when they come about.
You can hold training seminars and monthly meetings to ensure all of your medical coders know how they're supposed to work after these guideline changes go through. Then they can remain compliant, be impactful in their roles still, and save your oncology practice a lot of money.
Put an Emphasis on Quality Training
Each time you hire new coders to work for your oncology practice, you want to make sure they fit right in and perform their roles perfectly, without requiring much intervention from you or your office managers. In that case, put an emphasis on the type of training medical coder candidates receive.
If they go through a trusted training program that's relevant to your oncology practice, you can trust these professionals will know exactly what to do on day one. They thus won't make costly coding mistakes, nor will they require ample instruction from your oncology practice.
If you want your oncology practice to thrive from a financial standpoint, make sure coding is dialed in. You can get this part of your practice to this point by hiring the right coders, staying up to date with regulation changes, and gathering the correct information from patients. Then you can continue building momentum while ensuring patient claims get paid on time.
Find a program to learn more about medical oncology coding.
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