Medical coding

Why medical coding has become so important today? Well, for the simple reason that one must be able to recognize/identify and then appropriately bill every single medical service that has been offered.

Let us talk about a similar and more familiar example for the layman. Whenever we get into a supermarket there are so many different sections in there that we walk into. From grocery to books to dresses, all we need to do is just pick up things and put them into our shopping cart. With so many different items and rates how is the billing managed? We know that it is the barcode stickers on each item that store the entire story of the different item inside the supermarket and all the cashier needs to do is just scan each item. As he scans the rates / and all the other required details of all those product that we picked up is automatically incorporated calculated by the computer as our final bill is generated.

It is very similar with medical coding and billing. Before the bill is prepared it is first necessary to identify the service that is given. With so many different medical specialties, procedures, and medications how are we to identify and determine the rate that has to be charged? That is why it has to undergo the medical coding process which is now a universal standard that has been developed and is being perfected. Every single process may it be a laboratory test, consultation with a specialist or a surgery has been given a category with rates/charges that have been assigned. Today most part or the total amount of the medical bills is paid by either the private/government insurance companies including Medicare and Medicaid. These companies always want to make sure that the billing is perfectly done and that the right codes are assigned and billed. Any discrepancies found usually result in denial of the claim. The basic types of codes are:

Diagnostic codes
Procedural codes
Pharmaceutical codes
Topographical codes