Achieve 99% Coding Accuracy with Mentoring, Auditing, & Education
How do you shape the future of an accurate Inpatient, Outpatient, or Profee coder? With several best practices that have been thoroughly tested by a team of real-world coding and auditing experts who have 20+ years’ experience in HIM. Mentoring coders toward 99% coding accuracy is possible when the resources and expertise are available. One-on-one coaching sessions with HIM experts, training on all official coding guidelines, and focused/periodic audits with detailed progress reports are some of the key resources an experienced coding partner should offer. A personalized coder mentoring program and accuracy consulting services are additional resources YES HIM Consulting recommends that has proven great results. In some cases, coder mentoring programs have increased our client coder’s coding quality by 13%* in a matter of months.
Coder Mentoring Holds Key to Unlocking the Highest Coding Accuracy Potential
Coder mentoring is a custom service specifically tailored to each organization’s coders. With live mentoring and coaching sessions, coding teams receive concurrent feedback from experienced auditors and coding consultants. Mentors periodically conduct one-on-one coaching sessions; these provide individual encounter forms to assess each coder’s progress, offering recommendations for additional mentoring on specific encounter types. Mentoring sessions can also be done in a group setting; it is up to the organization to decide what works best for their team.
The coder mentoring program is a great resource for new-hire coders. It’s also good for coders who need additional guidance to increase their quality and efficiency. Mentoring programs empower coders through real-time feedback and dedicated question queues. In these queues, coders can ask for advice about issues they encounter in their day-to-day operations.
In our experience as HIM coding and auditing consultants, we’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that a coder mentoring program can have on coder accuracy and quality. *During our 24-month Client Coder Mentoring Program Case Study, coders increased their MS-DRG coding accuracy by 13% for an overall 96.4% accuracy rate. The program also identified overcoding and undercoding issues that affected overall coding quality. This resuled in in $60,000 identified in undercoded encounters per quarter and $55,000 in overcoded visits per quarter.
Coding Education & Frequent Audits Greatly Impact Coding Accuracy
Flexible coding training played a vital role in the success of the Client Coder Mentoring Program. Our team designed the YES HIM Education Catalog to offer specialized training for busy HIM professionals. The catalog features flexible formats, such as on-demand courses, live webinars and Q&A sessions, and blended formats.
Conducting focused or periodic coding audits of the coding team ensure coders are meeting coding accuracy standards. These audits also save a substantial amount of work, time, and money in the long run. Our auditing clients also receive detailed, periodic reports that track accuracy, performance, and trends in results.
Achieving a coding accuracy standard of 99% is not out of reach. By implementing the best practices we’ve noted – coder mentoring with experienced auditors, coding education to address training needs, and focused or periodic audits – healthcare organizations can realize their standardization goals.
When it’s time to take action, YES recommends implementing a personalized coder mentoring program and accuracy consulting to benefit coders and healthcare organizations. Contact our team of coding and auditing experts today.
