A few years ago, medical coding automation tools were a dream for many medical coders. With the arrival of every patient’s record, a medical coder had to review data on diagnoses, procedures, treatments, and browse through all the resources to choose appropriate codes. These records often were partial or had information missing and were not in a structured format, which made the situation worse.  For one patient’s case, they would need about 8 to 10 minutes to code. They also had to put in extra effort to keep up with the most recent coding standards and learn a variety of new codes.

However, those hard times have passed. Today, medical coding automation has become a reality. All credit goes to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology. The widespread adoption of AI has improved healthcare quality, enhanced access to care, increased doctor and patient happiness, and supported stable financial development for hospitals. Medical coders can complete the coding process significantly more quickly.

But what is medical coding automation exactly, and how does it help hospitals, RCM companies, and Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) in the revenue cycle?

What is medical coding automation?

In simple words, medical coding automation is a concept where the time-consuming medical coding activities are performed by a computer system using deep learning and machine learning techniques. Automated medical coding tools also help in monitoring and managing clinical records in the healthcare and medical research space. The medical coding automation tool is powered by different technologies, including computer-assisted coding (CAC), AI, and RPA.

Maximize ROI with AI in RCM Cycle

By utilizing AI in the medical coding process, you can provide your company a competitive edge and guarantee that your revenue integrity is solid and reliable.

The sheer number of patient visits and claims that need to be submitted might overwhelm medical coders if they are manually documenting and looking for appropriate codes. It’s only a matter of time before a claim is filed, incorrectly coded, or filed without the required backing materials. This leads to denials, which lowers revenue.

Productivity and accuracy of coding are the two crucial aspects that impact revenue. Using AI medical coding tool, a medical coder can process more claims in a shorter time. They can also reduce the number of errors while assigning codes.

Recruiting and managing a large in-house medical coding team for various tasks of your practice is expensive, especially when the task necessitates certified and experienced coders. A medical coding automation tool such as MEDICODIO lowers the staff overhead costs by automating most of the important coding activities.

By using a medical coding automation tool, you can:

• Collect accurate patient information.
• Medical coders can analyze patient data quickly and easily.
• Stay up to date about the changes in the healthcare industry.
• Shorten the revenue cycle to increase cash flow.
• Cut down on the amount of time needed for administrative work.
• Make data sharing more convenient and effective.
• Process claims and receive payments more quickly.
• Improve coders’ productivity, coding accuracy and decrease coding errors.
• Healthcare providers can use automation to lessen their reliance on pricey third-party billing systems.    

What’s More?

Apart from reducing costs, the automated medical coding tool provides other benefits, such as:

• Supports medical coders by mapping lines of text to digits.
• A tedious, time-consuming, and prone to error coding task can be performed without any hassle.
• Recognizes the text by scanning and extracting structured medical data from documents.
• Analyzes abstracted information and makes the code lookup task simple.
• Performs automatic data entry and inputs the chart into a billing system.

In summary, all these aspects help hospitals save costs and improve their financial health. Therefore, automating the medical coding process is a wise business decision. Healthcare providers can streamline their processes and concentrate on giving their patients high-quality care by utilizing automation.

Empowers Medical Coders

Now, before you make your mind up that automated medical coding tool will soon replace medical coders, there’s one important caveat. While many patients’ documentation can be easily categorized, there are some cases when patients undergo several diagnosis and treatments. In such cases, the experience of a skilled human coder comes in handy.

So, medical coding automation tool empowers medical coders, and does not replace them.

The medical coding automation tool will support human coders to do more in less time. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics report, a 7% employment increase is predicted for medical record specialists despite the emergence of advanced technology.

Instead of being replaced by advanced technology, they will serve as auditors alongside them. The outcome? This combination of human and machine can process codes much more quickly and accurately than a single person could. This will help healthcare providers process more claims and get the reimbursement quickly.

We hope this article helped you understand how you can maximize your ROI with medical coding automation tool. Please get in touch with us at info@medicodio.com or post your queries in the comment section below.