Medical coding service involves dedicated and precise attention, with coders’ skills being crucial for medical practices and insurance companies. The overall smooth functioning of health care facilities and effortless service by insurance carriers depend on effective and perfect medical coding.
Fundamentals of Medical Coding
Transforming various elements of health care diagnoses, processes, equipment, and medical services into universally standardized alphanumeric medical codes is Medical Coding. The data is collected from medical documentation such as transcripts of physician’s notes, lab and radiology reports, and so on. Abstracting relevant data, assigning appropriate codes to each, and preparing insurance claim are the basic tasks involved.
Medical Coders’ Regular Responsibilities
Medical practices providing service to patients need to maintain huge documentation. When an individual receives health care from any provider, every process such as treatment procedure and medication must be reported in the required form. Details of what was wrong with the patient and all services provided have to be documented. This enables health insurance providers to assess their financial obligation. Medical coders facilitate easy understanding by translating various medical procedures into commonly adopted standardized code.
Significant Duties performed by Medical Coding Service Providers
Medical conditions are numerous, illnesses are countless. This requires medical coders to perform extensive research of voluminous codes. They are needed to understand the fundamental medical terminology to be able to perform their routine tasks. Regular responsibilities include collecting relevant data from varied medical charts, carrying out research on the codes, and enter the information in the appropriate forms in a computer.
The chief characteristics needed of medical coding service
The following are the major attributes that make a medical coder eligible for the responsible task of medical coding:
To be able to offer reliable and efficient medical coding service, the coding professionals must have sound knowledge of medical terminology and basic idea about medical science. Governmental and payer regulations must be adhered to, properly.
Being familiar with different codes such as CPT, HCPCS, and ICD-10 and their respective coding systems is essential. It is crucial to know the guidelines of coding systems. Moreover, knowledge about which codes will be accepted by different insurance companies is necessary.
Fundamentals of Transcription
Transcription in the broader sense is the conversion of recorded dictation that is present in either audio or video format into text format. In reality, transcription is much more than just listening or viewing and typing – it involves presenting the content in a meaningful and relevant manner that fulfills its intended purpose of serving the users effectively.
How Transcription is classified
In the initial stages, transcription used to be just a paper and pen affair, with professionals and individuals dictation either personally or over phone lines and transcriptionists performing the transcribing act. The process of transcription has undergone huge transformation with the advent of information technologies and tools. Voice recorders and online sources have rendered the process of dictation and transcription efficient and accurate.
In the contemporary world, there are several ways of categorizing the transcription process. Depending on the primary factor- the client requirement, three types of transcriptions are found to take the major share. These three types are listed below:
Verbatim Transcription
Edited Transcription
Intelligent Transcription
Verbatim Transcription: Every single sound made or spoken, including exclamations, mumblings, and noises are exactly reproduced in text format in this type of transcription. This in fact includes half-spoken sentences and emotions expressed by means of gestures, and the transcriptionist is supposed to furnish each and every detail in the same sequence without losing even minute stuff. Legal transcriptions involve files that may have to be used as evidences and hence demand a close and careful attention on the dictation to be able to satisfy the purpose. Verbatim transcriptions consume time and are found to be expensive.
Edited Transcription: In this type of transcription, the role of transcriptionist is not mere reproduction of the source file- it is rather putting in a sincere effort to understand the content of the video or audio file and come up with meaningful and enlightening output that satiates the user requirement efficiently. Unnecessary and irrelevant portions need to be omitted by the transcriptionist without spoiling the source file’s information. Demanding expertise and contextual skills, this type of transcription is not only tough but also the well-paid type.
Intelligent Transcription: This type of transcription requires a thorough knowledge about the subject matter and ability to ensure that the transcripts make absolute sense and consist of content that accurately conveys the intended meaning of the person who dictates. Only those words and content that are useful and make meaning need to be transcribed while leaving out other insignificant phrases and sounds must be eliminated. The aim of this type of transcription is to provide a totally meaningful and usable content that furnishes comprehensive output to the user.
Numina Transcription Services, Inc has been in the field of providing efficient and accurate transcriptions services to global clients since more than a decade. We offer all types of transcription solutions that cater to the needs of users in different industry verticals.