If you own a medical practice of any size, you’re very aware at this point that it’s crucial to keep up with all the latest changes in medical coding.

Medical coding services are vital for anytime your practice needs to document patient care or bill insurance companies, and any time these services change it can have serious impacts on your financial health.

With it being several months into 2023 now, it’s essential to keep track of all the upcoming changes in medical coding services throughout the rest of the year.

Over the course of this article, we’ll cover 3 of the most important changes in the field, as well as how your practice can best prepare for them. Let’s begin!

New & Revised Codes

To kick things off, we’ll go over some of the new codes that will be used more commonly in 2023. Given that there’s always developments In the medical industry, it follows that new codes are often added to reflect the changes in medical practices or technology.

These codes give healthcare professionals much more detailed information when it comes to medical procedures and diagnoses, which ultimately helps them improve their accuracy when billing or reimbursing.

As an example, we can expect to see new codes being introduced for remote patient monitoring services across America. These services have become much more popular since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s looking like they’re here to stay. The codes themselves will represent services like telehealth visits, remote patient management, and even codes for monitoring patients’ vital signs remotely.

Aside from new codes being brought into the mix, there’ll also be plenty of existing codes that will be revised to reflect updates in the industry. Take cardiovascular procedures for example; they’ll be revised to make room for new add on injection codes which helps healthcare providers bill for newer and more advanced procedures when they’re available.

Increased Emphasis On Quality Reporting

Another trend expected to continue in 2023 is a wider focus on quality reporting. Essentially, this is simply the process of measuring and taking note of the quality of the healthcare services rendered to patients.

It’s a fairly critical component of any healthcare reform, and aims to gather a range of different measures to ultimately improve the quality of care your healthcare facility can provide. These measures include things like:

     –  Patient outcomes

     –  Patient safety

     –  Patient experience 

Afterwards, medical billing and coding services can use the data to assess your practices performance and identify any key areas for improvement.

Generally speaking, the ongoing industry shift towards value based care is a leading reason for the increasing emphasis towards quality reporting.

Value based care refers to the business model of healthcare delivery that focuses more on improving patient outcomes while reducing costs. To do this effectively, it’s crucial your medical coder stays on top of their service when it comes to ethical coding processes for your patients, meaning no medical coding errors or double billing.

In recent years, the healthcare industry has increasingly been recognising the importance quality reporting plays in improving patient outcomes and reducing your overall overhead. As such, there’s been an increased focus on the topic by various policymakers and regulatory agencies, and this trend is set to continue gaining traction.

Increased Use Of Technology

While not necessarily unique to the healthcare industry, there’s an increased reliance on technology for accurate medical coding services that’s only expected to continue in following years to come.

It’s likely that artificial intelligence will make its way into the healthcare industry too. AI can be used to speed up a lot of different services for certified medical coders, including things like analyzing patient medical records and history.

The advent of this technology looks to play a massive role in ensuring accurate and complete coding, which will ultimately result in much faster reimbursement and patient collections for your practice.

Outside of AI, there’s also the widespread use of cloud based systems to allow your user practice to store medical records or coding data in a private, centralized location you can access anywhere. Depending on how big your practice is, this can be a lifesaver for coders as it lets them work remotely and collaborate a lot easier.

Given all the new use cases of technology in comprehensive medical coding services, it’s crucial for you and your practice to adapt accordingly so you don’t get left behind. Aside from investing in training and education for all your employees, you might find outsourcing medical coding services quite helpful, which brings us to our next point.

Keeping Up To Date With Medical Coding Companies

For assistance with medical coding solutions and clinical documentation, consider outsourcing to PMN! At PMN, we’re well aware of how crucial it is for the health of your practice to stay informed about changes to medical coding services.

Because of this, our medical billers constantly monitor updates and changes to medical coding guidelines, making sure your practice is always compliant and running a smooth coding process.

Furthermore, our medical coding audit services were made to keep your billing system accurate and efficient, minimizing the risk of errors and unexpected fees

Lastly, our A/R management services can also help your practice optimize its revenue cycle. All our services are based on our extensive experience working with small medical practices and understanding of the unique challenges they face, so we’ll always provide personalized, tailored solutions to meet your practice’s specific needs and goals.

If you’d like to learn more, you can get in touch over the phone at (949) 215-5055, or by visiting our office in Laguna Hills, Orange County, California!

FAQs

How Will These Changes Affect Healthcare Providers?

To keep up with the new codes and guidelines, healthcare providers will need to update their current healthcare records and train staff members on what’s changed. In addition, these changes could also affect your general reimbursement rates and payment policies.

Will These Changes Affect Medical Billing & Insurance Claims?

It’s likely that these changes will have an impact on various different medical billing claims. Aside from insurance companies, other payers may also have to require extra documentation or general information in order to process claims correctly.