Wiki CPC

[heidimurphy]

I passed my CPC last year and my CRC last month. I came into medical billing through the back door as an auditor for medicare advantage plans for hospital systems. I see that I am lacking in being able to abstract procedure codes from operative reports and office visits. I worked as a coder and biller for a spine surgeon but the physicians pulled there own codes. I am looking for any input in so far as working on my abstraction skills for procedures. Thanks in advance for any thoughts, comments.

 

[Orthocoderpgu]

When your the one that has to read the documentation and choose the code, that's when your coding.

 

[heidimurphy]

Absolutely, any suggestions??

 

[Orthocoderpgu]

I coded E/M for years. It took a while to put all the pieces together. Surgeries are the same. It's just a matter of getting familiar with them. If you read an ACL repair, 99% of what's documented is not relevant. What you care about is that an ACL graft was put into place. Get ahold of any note that you can and post questions here, coders always help each other. Much of what I learned came from this very web site over the years. Make it work for you too.

 

[heidimurphy]

I coded E/M for years. It took a while to put all the pieces together. Surgeries are the same. It's just a matter of getting familiar with them. If you read an ACL repair, 99% of what's documented is not relevant. What you care about is that an ACL graft was put into place. Get ahold of any note that you can and post questions here, coders always help each other. Much of what I learned came from this very web site over the years. Make it work for you too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help. I appreciate your advice and look forward to finding some notes and addressing questions here. Again your advice is very appreciated, thanks again.