Hospital Billers & Coders

by Anonymous
(Not Specified)

Hospital billers and coders generally think that the purpose of diagnosis coding only billing (describing patient conditions and getting paid) What other aspects of diagnosis coding could affect us on a personal level?

Response:
By personal level I assume you mean how it affects the patient and how the diagnosis code is used for purposes other than billing.

Diagnosis codes are used by the government to track diseases. This is helpful in determining how diseases spread and geographic patterns.

The ICD codes are also documented on death certificates to identify the cause of death for tracking by health officials.

Another benefit to using diagnosis coding - in our case ICD-9-CM - is that it establishes a standard for recording the diagnosis a patient receives. This makes it possible for other medical professionals to know the patients diagnosis and medical history when they go to another provider, hospital, etc.

Everyone uses the same diagnosis coding standard - regardless of location, specialty, etc. This becomes important as electronic health records are used by more providers making it easier to share a patients medical treatment and history.