Wiki Who usually does medical coding/billing for a Health Dept?

[ljsweet@mchenrycountyil.gov]

I work as an accounting assistant for our county Health Department. Zero experience with medical coding or billing, but I and another coworker have been assigned this task. The Nursing Division here has us research all CPT codes and fees so that we can request this info be added to our EMR system. We also do the claims/billing for medicaid, medicare roster billing, self pay, etc....... just wondering if this is a "normal" situation?? Our manager tries to be helpful, but most of the time we are being told to "research" on our own. Very daunting when there is so much info out there and not understanding any of it, so how do we know what is correct......Any thoughts or tips on resources? Because our Health Dept only offers specific services, they wouldn't pay for either of us to get certified even if we wanted to. Thanks!

 

[khartoum1900nile@aol.com]

I have both CPC and CPB certificates. I briefly worked for my Health Department as an ASA II. The position was scheduling and registering patients. I then got pulled in to do the Billing, which mostly was for Family Planning. We did get paid for STD Services, but only if they drew blood for HIV or did Pre-Counseling. I was the 2nd Certified Coder and Biller in that position, but it made no difference. The Health Department didn't want to focus on the coding and billing and the documentation was horrendous. The higher-ups didn't want billing or documentation to be a top priority, just focused on increasing the number of patients. Since it's a Title 10 Clinic and WIC Clinic, that is where most of the revenue comes from, and billing was very low on the totem pole. Also, the nurses were told by the higher-ups to use a cheat sheet for procedure and diagnosis coding. Let's just say, they didn't select the most specified diagnosis codes, but that was not part of my job duty to fix or worry about.