Medical Coding Audit Tools: Why it’s a no-brainer for your organization

When Coding Departments are not running smoothly, it can take a toll on the entire organization. For instance, an understaffed team can lead to compliance risks, unrecouped funds, increased risk in claims denials and unchecked coding errors.

Using a coding audit tool can help increase the overall productivity of your existing auditing team, allowing you to do more with less without getting tied down in cumbersome manual processes. Here’s some ways a medical coding audit tool can help you do more with less:

• Efficiency: A medical coding audit tool automates many aspects of the auditing process, which saves time and allows auditors to focus on more critical tasks. This efficiency helps auditors handle a larger volume of audits within the same timeframe, maximizing the use of available resources.
• Accuracy: An audit tool can significantly improve accuracy by using built-in coding guidelines to analyze medical codes and documentation. It reduces the chances of human error, ensuring that coding discrepancies and inaccuracies are detected consistently. This accuracy reduces the need for rework or re-auditing, saving time and effort.
• Standardization: A coding audit tool helps maintain consistency in coding practices across the organization. It ensures that coding guidelines and regulations are uniformly applied, reducing variations in coding interpretations. Standardization simplifies the auditing process and enhances the reliability of audit outcomes.
• Compliance: Medical coding audit tools often include compliance checks to identify potential billing and coding errors that could lead to regulatory non-compliance. By catching these issues early on, organizations can rectify them promptly, reducing the risk of audits, penalties, or legal consequences. This proactive approach ensures that resources are not wasted on unnecessary corrective actions or compliance disputes.
• Reporting and Analysis: Audit tools generate comprehensive reports and analytics, providing insights into coding patterns, trends, and areas of improvement. These reports help identify recurring issues, training needs, and opportunities for process optimization. By leveraging these insights, organizations can allocate their resources more effectively, targeting specific areas that require attention.

Overall, a medical coding audit tool can optimize resource allocation, improve efficiency, enhance accuracy, maintain compliance, and facilitate continuous improvement in coding practices. It allows organizations to maximize the impact of their resources and ensure effective utilization during the medical coding audit process.

About HIAs Medical Coding Audit Tool, Atom Audit

Atom Audit is an easy-to-use and intuitive coding review application, with a customizable reporting dashboard, that enables auditors to efficiently and effectively manage the entire audit lifecycle. Originally developed for HIA’s internal use and client reporting, clients expressed interest in using the tool for their own review processes - so we made it happen. Among its many features, the platform gives users the ability to turn robust and itemized audit insights into actionable next steps. 

Atom Audit supports Inpatient, Outpatient, Professional Fee, and Ambulatory Surgery all for one annual per auditor fee. Each module includes features for full coding validation and reporting.

Here's a sneak peek at what each module can offer:

• Inpatient Module
  View accuracy reports by project, coder, provider, CDI staff DRG, Reason for Change, service line and more.
  
• Outpatient Module
  View accuracy reports by project, coder, facility, patient type, service line, APC reason and more.
• Professional Fee Module
  View accuracy reports by project, coder, facility, provider E/M, patient type and more.
• Ambulatory Surgery Module
  View accuracy reports by project, coder, facility, patient type, service line, APC reason and more.