What You Need to Know About Coding Using EMRs and Encoding Software

I haven't been perusing as many coding sites and Facebook pages recently as I was a couple of years ago, but I did recently come across a post that captured my attention.  Someone was asking if there was a way to get trained in a popular electronic medical record (EMR) to help them meet the requirements of a job.  It seems many employers are looking for work experience with a certain EMR before considering a person for a position.  Is this fair?  Well, it may not seem fair if you've never worked as a coder, but if you have, chances are pretty good you've had exposure to some of the major EMR software vendors.  For those of you who don't have any practical EMR experience, here's what you need to know.

Is it reasonable to require EMR experience?
First of all, if you've never coded before and your coding school didn't have a relationship with an EMR vendor allowing you to learn the system, any reasonable hiring manager is not going to expect you to have experience.  And if they aren't reasonable, then you don't want to work for them anyway (problem solved!).  If I pick up your resume and see you have taken some coding classes and have never worked in the healthcare field but are "proficient" in EMR software, I am going to have more than a few questions for you.  How did you get your EMR experience?  Which systems did you use?  What did you like or not like about it?  In other words, I won't believe you have experience with it and I will try to weed that out of you.  Or even worse, I may be inundated with resumes and feel like you're lying about something on the resume and I may not have the time or energy to do any investigating.  Your resume may be relegated to the "no" pile.

Fact: your employer will train you
Here's a fun fact.  Even if you've worked as a coder for 2 years using a certain EMR software, you will have to have training at your new facility.  You may think you know everything there is to know about a certain EMR software, but they are all customizable.  As a consultant, I've used the same EMR software at several clients and they are all a little different.  You may find documents stored in different places.  Your favorite EMR feature at Hospital A may not have been "turned on" at Hospital B.  So expect to be trained on the same software you've already been using every time you change employers.

EMRs are from Mars, encoders are from Venus
EMRs aren't the same as encoders.  Of course the EMR is where you will find the medical record documentation, but it is also where you will find financial information and abstracted data.  Encoders and computer assisted coding (CAC) software are usually separate from the EMR.  As a matter of fact, there aren't a lot of EMR vendors who are also in the business of encoder software.  That makes two different kinds of systems you need to be aware of.  But have no fear: while it's a plus if you have been trained on an encoder, you can expect your employer to train you there too.

You need to understand interfaces
Rather than obsessing over how to get trained on a particular EMR or encoder, here's something more important for you to focus on: you need to understand software interfaces.  Because your EMR and encoder are coming from two different vendors and they have to talk to each other, they rely on interfaces.  How that's set up is not important to you (although it's very important to the information technology department), but how and why you enter data the way you do is based on interfaces.  I've coded for lots of hospitals with lots of different computer systems, but in general, here's how it works:

1. You pull up the patient in the EMR.
2. If you work with a CAC product, you launch the CAC by clicking a button in the EMR.  This opens the CAC using an interface, so that it automatically pulls up the patient you are working on in the EMR and displays medical record documentation for coding.
3. If you don't have a CAC, you review the medical record documentation in the EMR and then launch the encoder using a button in the EMR.
4. Once you are in the CAC/encoder, you code the record.  This software allows you to look up codes and save them to a list.  When you're done, you click a complete button, and then you find yourself back in the EMR in the abstracting screens.
5. If the interface is working properly, everything you entered in the CAC/encoder is shown on your abstracting screens.  This is also where you can assign surgeons and dates to procedures as well as any other abstracted data your facility chooses to collect.
6. You send the account to billing in the EMR by indicating the account is complete.

(Most) EMRs don't have grouper software

Groupers are the magic software that calculate DRGs and APCs based on assigned codes.  Grouper logic is something that is built into CAC/encoder software, but not into EMR software.  If you ever need to make a change to codes to rebill an account, you can't just change the code in most EMRs.  It's pretty standard practice to reopen the account, relaunch the CAC/encoder, make corrections, send them back to the EMR through the interface, and then send for rebill.  This concept is something that many coders don't understand and, I would argue, this concept is more important than knowing the ins and outs of any particular EMR product as a new hire.

Knowing how to code is more important than anything

After all this, the most important thing you need to know to get a coding job is how to code.  Your employer can teach you everything I've mentioned above specific to your facility.  And they can also work with you on enhancing your coding skills.  But it's more important for you to focus on coding, coding guidelines, and a cursory background in coding reimbursement than it is for you to know an EMR inside-out.  

Evolution of the Coder Coach

I recently looked over my past blog postings to see what material I haven't covered. Well, there's a lot. And I realize my last few posts have been very heavy on ICD-10 - mainly because that's what I'm working on most of the time. It got me thinking, though - have I strayed from the initial intent of this blog? Who is my audience - current coders or future coders?

I have a friend and avid blogger (who's blog I am sorely behind in reading!) whom I consulted before I started the Coder Coach blog and I asked her, "What do I blog about?" She said, "Whatever you want!" Perfect! Because if I can't write about something I truly want to write about, what's the point of having a blog?! And today it really hit home - my audience has expanded.

I started the Coder Coach group and blog about 2 years ago because I identified an alarming trend. Schools are turning out coding professionals by the dozens and many of them are becoming certified. They spend a lot of time, money, and effort to get the training they will need to land them in a lucrative career only to have the doors of employers slammed in their faces because they lack experience. I've talked to my peers and we're all under regulatory pressures that make it difficult for us to train new employees. But can we ever really expect to hire someone who can truly hit the ground running without any training?

The Coder Coach isn't just this blog, it's also a Facebook group (where I post links to this blog and others) and it's a group of curious individuals in the Denver area who get together every couple of months to learn something about coding from a pro (not always me!) that goes above and beyond classroom learning. In my mind, the Coder Coach is helping to fill that big gap between school and experience.

But as I mentioned, my audience is growing. The unknown isn't just limited to coding students and new grads right now. The coding field is about to undergo a monster transition and at the same time, health information management (HIM) professionals are struggling with implementation of electronic health records (EHRs), health information exchanges (HIEs), and meaningful use standards. As an HIM professional and coder, I see and talk to many people who are paving the way for the future of these professions. My mother is a retired RHIT who was before her time - she retired about 10 years ago and before her retirement was really excited about the future of EHRs. When I tell her about what's going on in the field right now, she is in awe - we are just starting to realize what she had a vision for 15 years ago.

And as I've toured the state of Colorado, conducting outreach through our ICD-10 Task Force, I've had many HIM practitioners asking me questions that coding students ask me. Should they consider a change from the operational side of HIM to coding and what's the best way to do it? So I will try to give a good balance in my blog postings of basic things I think anyone interested in a coding career should know now along with what everyone seems to need - a little insight into what it will be like as an ICD-10 coder.

Happy evolving to all of us!

There's No Future in Coding... or is There?

When I graduated from college 15 years ago, there was a big local trend in my area to train RHITs to become utilization review (UR) case managers. In case you haven't heard of UR, they are typically nurses who review medical record documentation against criteria from insurance companies to help the doctors know when it would be best to discharge patients and they help arrange post-hospitalization care if needed. There was a local company created by an RHIT who received her first post-grad job from none other than my mom (also an RHIT) and she promised me an interview when I graduated. See? Networking is important!

Once I graduated, I called in the favor and met with her HR recruiter. The only problem was, I had just finished doing a lot of coding at an internship and I had fallen in love with it. Believe it or not, at that time there were no open coding positions. I used to joke that the only way I would get hired as a coder is if someone moved out of state or retired! So I took the interview at the UR company and it sounded okay. It sounded like something I could do and they were willing to train. They were even willing to give me raise once I passed my RHIT exam.

And then I got the call from my internship supervisor. She was excited to tell me that they had just run the numbers and decided they needed another outpatient coder. She really wanted to hire me as an inpatient coder, but this is what she could offer me to get my foot in the door. It was more money than the starting position at the UR company, but less than I would make at the UR company once I passed my RHIT. But I didn't care about the money, I wanted to code. So I took the coding job and graciously declined the UR position. And I was told by the HR recruiter at the UR company that there was no future in coding - the future was UR.

I'm sure there are still some RHITs out there doing UR, but within a few years of beginning my coding career, the coding industry exploded. We had OIG investigations and new code-based payment systems and a seemingly endless list of things to keep the job new and fresh. Now I look back on that time 15 years ago when I wondered if I was making a mistake because I followed my gut rather than looking at trends. And then I look forward at the challenges we're facing in the future of coding and can say with a resounding "hooray!" - I think I made the right decision!

Is the Future EHRs?
These days I'm starting to hear it again - "Go into electronic health records (EHRs), there's no future in coding." What?! That's absurd! I'm not here to tell you there is no future in EHRs, but don't let anyone tell you there's no future in coding either. The health information management (HIM) field has historically been divided into operations, i.e., managing patient health information, and coding.

These days the most innovative thing to hit operations is the EHR. More hospitals are moving toward EHRs that will allow for better accessibility to patient health information for continuity of care. There are programs popping up everywhere to close the education gap between HIM and information systems and the term "health informatics" is the new buzz term for the early part of the 21st century.

I have a lot of colleagues who are are firmly embedded in EHR implementations. As a matter of fact, my company is an EHR implementation company. But most of us currently working in the field know that while there is an absolute future in EHRs for any HIM professional, coding is not and never will be a dead-end career. And if you can understand how coding relates to EHRs and vice versa, you can be very marketable.

RHIT vs. RHIA
When I received my RHIT, I assumed I would go into management like my mom. She was an RHIT who had been everything from a coder in her early career to director of HIM and quality for a small psych hospital. RHITs are not typically managers, though, they are usually more ingrained in technical work. The associates program for HIM that precedes the RHIT certification exam is loaded with classes on the technical aspects of managing patient information - including coding - with a few management classes thrown in. The bachelors program that prepares one to sit for the RHIA exam is less technical and more management.

What we tell folks is, if they want to manage an HIM program, become an RHIA. If you want to be a technical worker, like a coder or cancer registrar, become an RHIT. But this isn't a hard and fast rule. I recently talked to an RHIA student who really thinks she wants to be a coder, but her fellow students are telling her there is no future in coding, the future is in managing EHR implementations. She really wants to pursue coding, though.

Follow Your Bliss
I'm not really one for corny sayings like "follow your bliss" but this is your career we're talking about. No matter what your educational background - RHIT or RHIA - if you're trying to decide between coding and EHRs, don't let anyone else influence your decision. Even if you're an RHIA who wants to be a coder or an RHIT who aspires to manage some day (it can and has been done!), go after what you want.

And don't let anyone tell you there is no future in coding or EHRs. All I see for the future of HIM is opportunity in every direction I look.