The Office of Inspector General has estimated that Medicare contractors nationwide overpaid physicians roughly $28.8 million combined in 2008 and 2009 for incorrectly coded services. This news makes it a little easier to understand the need for a new medical coding system.
Becker’s Hospital Review brought this news to our attention in their article, “OIG: Medicare Contractors Overpaid Physicians $28.8M in 2008-09 for Incorrectly Coded Services.” Physicians incorrectly coded claims of 83 sampled services by using non-facility place-of-service codes for services that were actually performed in hospital outpatient departments or ambulatory surgical centers. Medical coding requires specialized expertise and systems tailored to the regulatory requirements in which health care providers, hospitals, and doctors deliver their services. Errors cost money, period.
Access Innovations, Inc., a leader in data integrity and content creation, has announced the Access Innovations Integrity Initiative (AI³), a suite of tools and services for quality assurance and validation of medical coding. The system can be used to quickly and accurately validate medical coding or to locate errors in existing documentation. The cost savings are impressive.
The Access Innovations Integrity Initiative is not just for physicians, hospitals, and their data service providers. It also includes tools that give auditors and insurers the information management tools they need to quickly identify areas of noncompliance or suspicious activity.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in taxonomies, metadata, and semantic enrichment to make your content findable.
