SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Currently coding for patient encounter billing is done by nurses/physicians. This is not standard practice elsewhere in the medical field as physicians and nurses are not trained as professional coders. All coding should be done by professional coders (who are already reviewing the charts in any case) to ensure appropriate coding for maximum fee collection. Perhaps physician bonuses could be partly dependent upon the... more »

When one agency provides services for another, a sincere thank you should suffice. The idea of one part of the government billing another is wasteful. Consider the accounting and paying the accountant. At best this practice shows the need for more inter-agency cooperation. At worst, it subverts the budgeting process.

While working here at the VA, I am in charge of ensuring that the encounters for Patient billing are entered correctly for my department. Since taking over this task the number of errors being made by the staff in this department has drastically dropped because I created how to guides and done several different educational sessions with clinicians in our department. The VA has a vast problem with these encounters and... more »