Inpatient Coder

Job Description

Job Summary

The Inpatient Coder is responsible for accurately assigning ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS to inpatient hospital visits while adhering to official coding guidelines.

Essential Responsibilities

• Ability to sequence and assign ICD-10-CM/PCS diagnosis and procedure codes to complex inpatient visits by following the coding guidelines.
• Proficient in interpreting medical documentation to determine the principal diagnosis and procedures codes and to assign the correct Present on Admission (POA) indicator to all codes.
• Assigns the correct Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) and All Patient Refined (APR-DRG) while adhering to coding guidelines for sequencing.
• Ability to write a compliant physician query and collaborate with Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) to clarify or resolve conflicting documentation prior to assigning final codes on inpatient accounts.
• Ability to utilize the Computer Assistant Coding (CAC) software to review medical documentation and select codes for billing and reporting purposes.
• Analyze and resolve coding denials from insurances companies and patient accounts.
• Follows internal workflows for accounts that has documentation or other errors that has to be resolved before coding.
• Follows the official ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PC guidelines for coding and reporting.
• Keeps up to date on coding changes and other changes to regulations that governs medical record coding and documentation.
• Ability to maintain the national standards for coding accuracy and internal standards for productivity.
• Maintains continuing educations hours as dictated by certification standards.
• Maintains confidentiality of patient health information.

Job Knowledge & Skills, Education, Experience

Minimum Qualifications Required:

1. High School graduation or equivalent.
2. Current certification as a Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) or Certified Coding Specialist-Physician-based (CCS-P) or Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) or Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), or current certification as a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) or a Certified Outpatient Coding (COC) by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) (formerly CPC-H certification).
3. One (1) year/twelve (12) months of work experience comparable to that performed at the Reimbursement Coding Representative level of this series or in other positions of comparable.

Preferred Qualifications: A minimum of 2 year's of experience coding at acute care hospital preferable an academic teaching hospital that has a complex case mix index (CMI) and diverse medical services.

Working Conditions - Physical Requirements & Work Environment

Requires an office to be setup for working remotely in a secure environment for confidentiality. The position requires sitting for extended periods of time, visual acumen, manual dexterity and fingering for working with computer key boards. May have to come on-site for mandatory meetings occasionally. Requires interaction with peers primarily by e-mail and telephone

Experience and Assignment Requirements:

• CCS - Certified Coding Specialist is required
• 5+ years inpatient coding experience, preferably in an academic medical settiing
• Epic experience is preferred.