Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Medical Coding Books: Do You Need Them?

By Candy Casty


There are many types of books that someone would use for the medical billing industry. Some of the books are updated annually and others are about the billing industry as a whole. It is important to learn which types of books you need.

Some medical billing books are important because they describe codes. There are around four books that you need to own as a medical biller. They are the CPT4, RBRVS, ICD9 and HCPCS. These books have different codes in them that need to be addressed and worked on.

The current procedural terminology books describes the procedures and services done by physicians. This book will show you the different codes that are used and the explanation of each code as well. This is a great book to use if you are trying to discover new information when it comes to medical coding. We are now using ICD-10 codes.

Books help us to grow in our careers. When you look at these codes, you become familiar with what each code represents and why. There are a lot of reasons as to why someone would use these coding books. The main reason is because you want to document procedures correctly. Incorrect billing often means no payment on your claim from the insurance companies.

CPT code books describe services and procedures that are performed by physicians. They list each code and give you an explanation for the procedure. It is important to become familiar with these. With ICD-9, you had to be familiar with around 14,000 codes. That is a lot of codes. However, ICD-10 has over 100,000.

The ICD9 code books are a bit different. They list diagnosis both numerically and alphabetically. It is important to keep in mind that these books are kept up to date each year because things are constantly evolving and changing. Remember, we no longer use ICD-9 billing system. We now use ICD-10.

Medical billing is not as hard as people think it is. Yes, coding is no easy task because it requires research and time. You must find time to look up codes and to properly input. If not, you will have poor claims and insurance companies that deny them. Eventually you will get fired if you are not doing the right thing.

Learning more about medical billing and coding takes time. You will have to learn more about medical procedures. Some people choose to learn about anatomy in school or through an online course. No matter how you learn it, it's important to always keep your skills updates.




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