Top Challenges, Opportunities of Medical Coding and Billing

2020 was one of the most tumultuous years for coding and medical billing staff. Just as clinicians revolutionized healthcare, those involved in the revenue cycle had to find new ways to support those clinical transformations on the healthcare administrative side.

Meanwhile, coders and medical billing staff faced the greatest change to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule in about three decades on top of frequent off-cycle changes to major medical coding sets to account for the novel coronavirus and related conditions.

Education and training have been one of the tried-and-true best practices for coding and billing teams. Yearly updates to coding sets and payer reimbursement policies necessitate frequent training sessions for both coding and bill team members and clinicians documenting care at the point of service.

But COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on just how important education, training, and communication are to ensure accurate documentation and denial prevention.