This position is located in the Health Information Management - HIM section at the VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System. 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. Responsibilities include:
Total rewards of an Allied Health Professional Medical Records Technician -Coder Auditors serve as experts of current coding conventions and guidelines related to professional and facility coding. MRT -Coder Auditors act independently to plan, organize, and perform auditing with emphasis on data validation, analysis, and generation of reports. They assist in the development of guidelines for data quality, consistency, and monitoring for compliance to improve the quality of clinical, financial, and administrative data. Auditors perform audits of encounters to identify areas of non-compliance in coding and facilitate improved overall quality, completeness, and accuracy of coded data. They provide recommendations on appropriate coding and assist facility staff with documentation requirements to completely and accurately reflect the patient care provided. They provide technical support in the areas of regulations and policy, coding requirements, resident supervision, reimbursement, workload, accepted nomenclature, and proper sequencing. They use computer applications with varied functions to produce a wide range of reports, to abstract records, and review assigned codes. They maintain statistical databases to track the results and validate the program.
Duties include:
Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00am - 4:30pm
Recruitment Incentive -Sign-on Bonus: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station -Relocation Assistance: Not Authorized
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases
When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA -Above Minimum Rate of the Grade.
Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year -13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year
Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.
Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.
Retirement: Traditional federal pension -5 years vesting- and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA
Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care,many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement.
Telework: Ad-hoc Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 000000 Permanent Change of Station -PCS: Not Authorized
Requirements Conditions of Employment
You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959. Must be proficient in written and spoken English. Subject to background/security investigation. Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements.
Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest.
Qualifications Basic Requirements:
United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
Experience and Education: Experience: One year of creditable experience that indicates knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, medical coding, and the structure and format of a health records. OR Education: An associate's degree from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education with a major field of study in health information technology/health information management, or a related degree with a minimum of 12 semester hours in health information technology/health information management (e.g., courses in medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, medical coding, and introduction to health records); OR Completion of an AHIMA approved coding program, or other intense coding training program of approximately one year or more that included courses in anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, basic ICD diagnostic/procedural, and basic CPT coding. The training program must have led to eligibility for coding certification/certification examination, and the sponsoring academic institution must have been accredited by a national U.S. Department of Education accreditor, or comparable international accrediting authority at the time the program was completed; OR, Experience/Education Combination: Equivalent combinations of creditable experience and education are qualifying for meeting the basic requirements. The following educational/training substitutions are appropriate for combining education and creditable experience: (a) Six months of creditable experience that indicates knowledge of medical terminology, general understanding of medical coding and the health record, and one year above high school, with a minimum of 6 semester hours of health information technology courses. (b) Successful completion of a course for medical technicians, hospital corpsmen, medical service specialists, or hospital training obtained in a training program given by the Armed Forces or the U.S. Maritime Service, under close medical and professional supervision, may be substituted on a month-for-month basis for up to six months of experience provided the training program included courses in anatomy, physiology, and health record techniques and procedures. Also, requires six additional months of creditable experience that is paid or non-paid employment equivalent to a MRT (Coder).
Certification: Persons hired or reassigned to MRT (Coder) positions in the GS-0675 series in VHA must have either (1), (2), or (3) below:
(1) Apprentice/Associate Level Certification through AHIMA or AAPC.
(2) Mastery Level Certification through AHIMA or AAPC.
(3) Clinical Documentation Improvement Certification through AHIMA or ACDIS.
Physical Requirements. See list below.
English Language Proficiency: MRTs (Coder) must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f).
May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).
Grade Determinations: Medical Records Technician (Coder) Auditor, GS-9
Experience. One year of creditable experience equivalent to the journey grade level of a MRT (Coder).
Specialized experience includes:
Ability to analyze the health record to identify all pertinent diagnoses and procedures for coding and to evaluate the adequacy of the documentation. This includes the ability to read and understand the content of the health record, the terminology, the significance of the comments, and the disease process/pathophysiology of the patient; Ability to accurately perform the full scope of outpatient coding, including ambulatory surgical cases, diagnostic studies and procedures, and outpatient encounters, and inpatient facility coding, including inpatient discharges, surgical cases, diagnostic studies and procedures, and inpatient professional services; Skill in interpreting and adapting health information guidelines that are not completely applicable to the work, or have gaps in specificity, and the ability to use judgment in completing assignments using incomplete or in adequate guidelines.