Coding impacts bottom line -- May 2003 -- FP Report

Coding impacts bottom line

It's a rule: Coding is imperative to the business of medicine. So said coding instructors Thomas Felger, M.D., of South Bend, Ind., chair of the AAFP Commission on Health Care Services, and Marie Felger, a certified professional coder, during AAFP's Crash Course on Cash, Codes and Computers March 13 14 in New Orleans. Here's a sampling of quotable quips from instructors and participants, heard during the course:

"As FPs, we undervalue ourselves. Our most common mistake is undercoding." -- T. Felger, M.D.
"If it's not documented, it's not billable." -- M. Felger
"Detailed coding tells someone outside your office how sick your patient is." -- M. Felger
On the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' rule on legibility: "If three people can't read your claim, it's not billable." -- M. Felger
"When you mention coding for preventive medicine, physicians groan and roll their eyes." -- M. Felger
On Medicare: "You play the game CMS' way or you don't get paid." -- M. Felger
Concurrent care situations: "The person who files the claim first usually gets paid." -- M. Felger
"I went through the code book ... there's actually a code for demonstrating an inhaler." -- John Trainer, M.D., Jacksonville, Fla.
"Insurance companies play these horrible coding games, and we've gotten killed." -- Harry Brodie, M.D., Littleton, Colo.
"I've been overwhelmed by what I didn't know." -- Darrell Willis, M.D., Panama City Beach, Fla.
"The longer you let billings go, the less you will collect." -- George Xakellis Jr., M.D., M.B.A.

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