Concurrent Inpatient Coding Specialist

Concurrent Inpatient Coding Specialist

Grand Itasca is a non-profit organization with a clear vision of being the leader in transforming rural health care by achieving the highest levels of quality, access, and value. Our strength stems from teamwork and collaboration among a talented and diverse group of professionals. With over 700 employees in hundreds of different roles, Grand Itasca can offer a variety of career opportunities.

The concurrent Inpatient Coding Specialist applies the appropriate diagnostic and procedural codes to medical records for purposes of data retrieval, analysis and claims processing. The coding specialist is responsible for effectuating clinical documentation improvement by evaluating and assessing the specificity of documentation to adequately reflect patient severity, risk of morality and services rendered. The coding specialist interacts with other professional caregivers on a daily basis to capture quality documentation.

Job Duties:

1. Facilitates clinical documentation improvement through extensive concurrent interaction with physicians, nurses, case management, other caregivers, and coding staff.
2. Identifies co-morbidities/complications through documentation review.
3. Works with team to query medical staff and other caregivers as necessary to obtain accurate and complete physician documentation that supports the severity and specificity of the patient's illness.
4. Identifies documentation trends and issues such as quality, appropriateness, completeness, and reimbursement issues and communicate these to providers/documentation team so that resolution can be made.
5. Interact with hospital coding team as documentation issues and complex cases are identified through the process.
6. Abstract quality indicators as assigned.
7. Ensure physician documentation is provided to assure accurate and timely reporting of POA indicators.
8. May actively participate in preemptive audits for the RAC program.
9. Keep abreast of coding guidelines and reimbursement reporting requirements. Bring identified concerns to department manager for resolution.
10. Follow established departmental policies, procedures, and objectives, continuous quality improvement objectives and safety and environmental standards.
11. Ensures strict confidentiality of financial and medical reports
12. Attend coding conferences, workshops, and in-house sessions to receive updated coding information and changes in coding and/or regulations.
13. Abides by the Standards of Ethical Coding as set forth by AHIMA and adheres to official coding guidelines.
14. Initiates and participates in continuous quality improvement initiatives.
15. Ability to meet production standards as set by the department.
16. Ability to maintain accuracy standards as set by the department.
17. Perform other related duties as required. This list is not all-inclusive and any other task or job may be assigned in the future.

If you have the following qualifications, we would love to talk to you!

Required:

1. Current AHIMA or AAPC accreditation
2. 3 years of coding related experience such as coding, abstracting, DRG assignment, data quality in coding function, as required by position

Preferred:

1. RHIT or Bachelor's Degree in a health related field such as Business Office or Health Information Management
2. Epic Certification in Resolute/HIM
3. 5+ years of coding related experience such as coding, abstracting, APC assignment, data quality in coding function type as required by position. Experience in a variety of specialty coding areas and/or hold multiple credentials.