Do you have coders at your organization who sometimes forget to finalize their coding, resulting in unnecessary “waiting for coding” active encounter holds? It may be difficult to answer this question if you don’t have visibility around the actions and tasks assigned to and worked on by your HIM department. The inability to view and track coder or HIM productivity generally leads to the overall inefficiency of the billing offices getting claims out the door promptly due to incomplete HIM actions and tasks.
An HIM coder’s job is to assign diagnostic and procedure codes to the patient records. HIM coders are responsible for reviewing the patient’s medical record to assign the most appropriate codes based on the documentation and the work done. Depending on the employer and/or facility, different types of code may be used. It is up to the HIM coder to report any problems with the medical record or the codes associated with the medical record. HIM personnel should work with hospital staff and management regarding the possible issues and reimbursement if there are errors with codes used in medical documentation.
Softek’s Panther tools can help with an organization’s lack of visibility regarding coder productivity and incomplete tasks via the HIM Productivity tool. The HIM Productivity tool gives Oracle Health® clients who use Cerner Patient Accounting® full visibility of the productivity of each coder within the HIM department. This control also provides Oracle Health® clients visibility into their active held encounters due to “waiting for coding” and the associated Task Aging to prioritize work. In addition to viewing the actively held encounters, the HIM Productivity tool also shows the tasks assigned, items being worked on, and the completed actions by HIM personnel. The visibility that this tool provides the client allows them to see what coding needs to be finalized to continue the billing process and helps HIM management better understand the work that their coders are doing. The productivity of HIM coders directly affects how hospitals generate revenue and reimbursement. This solution gives clients the tools needed to optimize HIM workflows and practices to maximize revenue for the organization.
What does Softek® do?
Softek’s mission is to help hospital systems maximize their investment in Oracle Cerner Millennium®. We do this by providing innovative software solutions and consulting services that can achieve more together than either can alone.
At Softek, our team of innovators and software developers brings expertise beyond the ordinary to every client. Our experts are involved with Oracle Cerner Millennium® hospitals throughout the country, consulting clients so they can optimize system performance and revenue integrity.
Softek delivers a full suite of consulting services and software solutions to assess and optimize EMR system performance, including revenue cycle integrity and patient accounting.
Let’s talk about how you can get the most out of your Oracle Cerner Millennium® system.
