What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Inpatient Coder - $5000 Sign-On Bonus position at Houston Methodist?
At Houston Methodist, the Senior Inpatient Coder position is responsible for ensuring diagnostic and procedure codes are assigned accurately to inpatient, emergency room, therapy, and/or clinic encounters based upon documentation within the electronic medical record while maintaining compliance with established rules and regulatory guidelines.
PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.
- Interacts and communicates effectively with members of the coding team and HIM, physicians, IT, Patient Access and Business Office.
- Participates and provides good feedback during coding section meetings and coding education inservices.
- Takes initiative to assist others and shares knowledge with the coding group, business office, physicians and nurses on official coding guidelines.
SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
- Responds promptly to internal and external customer requests. Responds promptly to requests to code or review coded accounts for accuracy.
- Initiates queries with physicians to obtain or clarify diagnoses and/or procedures as appropriate, utilizing the established physician query process.
QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
- Responsible for assigning diagnostic and procedural codes to encounters of high complexity.
- Maintains and achieves the highest standards of coding quality by assigning accurate ICD-9-CM/ICD-10-CM/ICD-10-PCS codes utilizing an electronic encoder application in accordance with hospital policy and regulatory body guidelines.
- Maintains and achieves department standards of abstracting quality by reviewing accurate discharge disposition entered by nursing and corrects if necessary in order to achieve the highest quality of entered data. Assigns and enters physician identification number and procedure date correctly in the medical record abstracting system.
- Reviews medical record documentation and abstracts data into the encoder and EPIC/Electronic Health Record (EHR) to determine principal or final diagnosis, co-morbid conditions and complications, secondary conditions and procedures.
- Complies with the Standards of Ethical Coding as set forth by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and adheres to official guidelines.
FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
- Utilizes time effectively. Consistently codes and abstracts at or above departmental standards of productivity while ensuring accuracy of coding.
- Supports meeting organizational goal for Accounts Receivables (AR) associated with uncoded accounts.
- Maintains coding timeframes within established departmental standards by ensuring all work items assigned to the coding queues are processed in a timely manner.
GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
- Critically evaluates her or his own performance, accepts constructive criticism, and looks for ways to improve.
- Displays initiative to improve relative to job function. Contributes ideas to help improve quality of coding data and abstracting data.
This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.
EDUCATION
WORK EXPERIENCE
- Associate's degree or higher in a Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management accredited program or additional two years of experience (in addition to the minimum experience requirements listed below) in lieu of degree
WORK EXPERIENCE
- Three years of relevant inpatient coding experience or successful completion of the Houston Methodist Senior Inpatient Coder Transition Program
