How to Make Sure Your Coding Team Is at the Top of Its Game

by  Find-A-Code™
Jan 15th, 2024

Efficient medical billing requires competent and accurate medical coding. Everything medical coders do impacts their counterparts in the billing department. Therefore, it is to everyone's advantage to make sure that the coding team remains at the top of its game day in and day out.

Do you manage a team of medical coders? Are you looking for ways to help them be better in 2024? If so, we have some tips you might be interested in. They can be applied to medical coding teams of all sizes. Implementing them in the coming year should make a noticeable difference in encoding accuracy, efficiency, and productivity.

1. Establish a Training Program

Administrators expect medical coders to bring proper training and certification to the job. That is all well and good. But medical coding is a constantly evolving field which takes considerable effort to keep up with. You can do your coding team a great service by establishing a formal training program designed around the single goal of helping each team member stay abreast of the current state of medical coding.

Look for opportunities to train your coders in all the latest details relating to CPT, ICD-10-CM, and HCPCS Level II. If possible, set up a continuous education program that offers ongoing opportunities for your team members to expand their knowledge. The more they learn, the more effective they will be.

2. Invest in Technology and Support

As medical coding becomes more complex, coding teams rely more on technology. Help your team out by investing in the latest technology and support. Note that support includes training in the technology itself. Don't leave your coders to figure out the technology on their own.

Technology investments can be expensive. They can put a strain on the budget. But in the end, the right technology helps medical coders improve productivity and accuracy. It is well worth the investment, especially if your team struggles with outdated technology that only continues running due to workarounds from the IT department.

3. Conduct a Comprehensive Audit

One of the most important administrative tasks you can perform on behalf of your coding team is conducting an internal audit. Comprehensive audits of coding accuracy and productivity should be conducted at least once per year. Less intense audits conducted quarterly can be quite helpful as well.

Why conduct an audit? To gain a better understanding of what your team is doing well as opposed to what it's not. You need to identify strengths if you hope to keep pushing them. Likewise, you cannot address weaknesses if you do not identify them first.

Along with the audit, make sure there is plenty of room for feedback. Give your team an opportunity to let you know what they think of current policies, procedures, etc. Listen to what they have to say and then provide your own feedback on their performance. Good conversations between management and coders generally lead to good results.

4. Honestly Assess the Workflow

Finally, honestly assess the workflow among the various members of the coding team. Look for duplicative work and systemic inefficiencies. Identify those things that slow down workflow or lead to excessive inaccuracies. Only after an honest assessment can you start developing new policies and procedures that will optimize workflow.

Maintaining a top-level medical coding team requires some effort along with a commitment to excellence. It is not something managers can achieve overnight. But once achieved, maintaining top-level status makes all the difference in the world. As we head into 2024, here's hoping that your medical coding team is at the top of its game.