Medical coding – as part of the medical team, medical coder reviews the patient’s file and translates everything from that file into universal codes required by insurance companies. It’s the medical coder’s responsibility to make sure the right code is used every single time. It’s the only way to ensure the insurance companies are billed properly.

The challenge, however, is that there are thousands of conditions, diseases, injuries, and causes of death. There are also thousands of services performed by providers and an equal number of injectable drugs and supplies to be tracked. Medical coding classifies these for easier reporting and tracking. And in healthcare, there are multiple descriptions, acronyms, names, and eponyms for each disease, procedure, and tool. Medical coding standardizes the language and presentation of all these elements so they can be more easily understood, tracked, and modified.

Medical codes translate that documentation into standardized codes that tell payers the following:

• Patient’s diagnosis
• Medical necessity for treatments, services, or supplies the patient received
• Treatments, services, and supplies provided to the patient
• Any unusual circumstances or medical condition that affected those treatments and services