<p>This position is located in the Health Information Management (HIM) section at the Battle Creek VA Medical Center. MRTs (Coder) are skilled in classifying medical data from patient health records in the hospital setting, and/or physician-based settings, such as physician offices, group practices, multi-specialty clinics, and specialty centers. These coding practitioners analyze and abstract patients' health records, and assign alpha-numeric codes for each diagnosis and procedure.</p> <p>Assigns codes to documented patient care encounters (outpatient and/or inpatient professional services) covering the full range of health care services provided by the VAMC. Patient encounters are often complicated and complex requiring extensive coding expertise. Applies advanced knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy & physiology, disease processes, treatment modalities, diagnostic tests, medications, procedures as well as the principles and practices of health services and the organizational structure to ensure proper code selection.</p> <p>Selects and assigns codes from the current versions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), and/or Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS).Adheres to accepted coding practices, guidelines and conventions when choosing the most appropriate diagnosis, operation, procedure, ancillary, or evaluation and management (E/M) code to ensure ethical, accurate, and complete coding. Also applies codes based on guidelines specific to certain diagnoses, procedures, and other criteria used to classify patients under the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) program that categorizes all VA patients into specific classes representing their clinical conditions and resource needs.</p> <p>Monitors ever-changing regulatory and policy requirements affecting coded information for the full spectrum of services provided by the VAMC. Timely compliance with coding changes is crucial to the accuracy of the facility database as well as all cost recovery programs.</p> <p>Performs a comprehensive review of the patient health record to abstract medical, surgical, ancillary, demographic, social, and administrative data to ensure complete data capture. Patient health records may be paper or electronic. The abstracted data has many purposes, for example, to profile the facility services and patient population, to determine budgetary requirements, to report to accrediting and peer review organizations, to bill insurance companies and other agencies, and to support research programs.</p> <p>Assists facility staff with documentation requirements to completely and accurately reflect the patient care provided; provides technical support in the areas of regulations and policy, coding requirements, resident supervision, reimbursement, workload, accepted nomenclature, and proper sequencing. Insures provider documentation is complete and supports the diagnoses and procedures coded. Directly consults with the professional staff for clarification of conflicting or ambiguous clinical data. Reports incorrect documentation or codes in the electronic patient health record.</p> <p>Expertly searches the patient health record to find documentation justifying code assignment based on an expanded knowledge of the organization and structure of the patient record.</p> <p>Conducts re-reviews of codes abstracted for outpatient encounters identified by the VERA committee to determine if based on the documentation the specific VERA coding requirements were followed; corrects coding as needed to ensure proper patient classification in the VERA program.</p> <p>Codes inpatient professional fee services for identified inpatient admissions. Code selection is based upon strict compliance with regulatory fraud and abuse guidelines and VA specific guidance for optimum allowable reimbursement.</p> <p>Establishes the primary and secondary diagnosis and procedure codes for outpatient encounters following applicable regulations, instructions, and requirements for allowable reimbursement; links the appropriate diagnosis to the procedure and/or determines level of E/M service provided. Understands the nuances of the CPT coding system for Third Party Insurance cost recovery and accurately interprets instructional notations; bundles encounters when appropriate; identifies non-billable encounters.</p> <p>Work Schedule: Monday-Friday; 08:00AM-4:30PM</p> <p>Remote: These approved positions are currently designated for a mid-term extension to the return to office mandate through October 2025. While these positions may be filled as remote, the employee will be required to return to the office if the mid-term extension is not continued. Therefore, all applicants must be located within 50 miles of a VA facility.</p> <p>Functional Statement #: 93016-A</p> <p>Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized</p> <p>Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized</p> <p>Financial Disclosure Report: Not required</p>