Is Coding Your Weak Spot? Turn to AAFP Tutorials

Inaccurate coding can cost family physicians a bundle. To help keep members up-to-date on coding issues, the Academy has released the second in a series of coding tutorials.

The latest tutorial -- Outpatient E/M Coding: Selecting a Level of Service -- focuses on the documentation and selection of a level of service for outpatient evaluation and management services.

Learn more about how to code based on time, as well as about best coding practices for observation and emergency department services. The tutorial includes case studies that users read before selecting from multiple-choice answers. The program is set up for on-the-spot learning; tutorial participants immediately see the correct answer as well as the explanation for that answer.

The tutorial costs $39.95. An e-mail containing the tutorial as a PDF file will arrive in the user's inbox within two days of ordering it.

A link to an online post-test and evaluation can be found on the last page of the tutorial. After completing the program, Academy members can log in using their ID number, take the online post-test and complete the evaluation. AAFP Prescribed credit will be reported automatically to the AAFP when the member's post-test and evaluation are completed.

Physicians who missed the July 2006 launch of this coding initiative -- and who want to brush up on coding basics -- may want to begin with the first tutorial, Introduction to E/M Services Coding.

Additional modules will be added to the site as content is developed.