Outpatient Coder

100% Remote (Must Live in FL, TN, GA, LA, WA State, or TX)

At Houston Methodist, the Outpatient Coder position is responsible for ensuring diagnostic and procedure codes are assigned accurately to outpatient, emergency room, therapy, and/or clinic encounters based upon documentation within the electronic medical record while maintaining compliance with established rules and regulatory guidelines.

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Interacts and communicates effectively with members of the coding team and the appropriate stakeholders.

• Participates and provides good feedback during coding section meetings and coding education in-services as well as takes initiative to assist others and shares knowledge with the appropriate stakeholders.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Responds promptly to internal and external customer requests. Responds promptly and appropriately to requests to code or review coded accounts for accuracy.

• Initiates queries with physicians to obtain or clarify diagnoses and/or procedures as appropriate, utilizing the established physician query process.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Maintains and achieves departmental standards of coding quality by assigning accurate ICD-10-CM/ICD-10-PCS and CPT codes and APC assignment utilizing an electronic encoder application in accordance with hospital policy and regulatory body guidelines.

• Maintains and achieves departmental standards of abstracting quality by reviewing the discharge disposition entered by nursing and corrects if necessary in order to achieve the highest quality of entered data. Assigns and enters physician identification number and procedure date correctly in the medical record abstracting system.

• Reviews medical record documentation and abstracts data into the encoder and Electronic Health Record (EHR) to determine principal or final diagnosis, co-morbid conditions and complications, secondary conditions and procedures. Utilizes all tools/resources for accuracy.

• Complies with the Standards of Ethical Coding as set forth by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and adheres to official guidelines.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Utilizes time effectively. Consistently codes and abstracts at departmental standards of productivity while ensuring accuracy of coding.

• Supports meeting organizational goal for Accounts Receivables (AR) associated with uncoded accounts.

• Maintains coding timeframes within established departmental standards by ensuring all work items assigned to the coding queues are processed in a timely manner.

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Critically evaluates own performance, accepts constructive criticism, and looks for ways to improve.

• Displays initiative to improve relative to job function. Contributes ideas to help improve quality of coding data and abstracting data.

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.

EDUCATION

• Associate's degree or higher in a Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management accredited program or additional two years of experience (in addition to the minimum experience requirements listed below) in lieu of degree

WORK EXPERIENCE

• One year of relevant outpatient coding experience or completion of the Houston Methodist Coding Apprentice Program