Publisher's Synopsis
Medical coding refers to the process of transforming narrative descriptions of diseases, injuries, and healthcare procedures into numeric or alphanumeric designations in the form of code numbers. A medical coding specialist needs to read and review medical documentation provided by health care providers so to obtain detailed patient information including disease, injuries, surgical operations, and other procedures. This detailed information has to be translated into numeric codes using universally recognized coding systems. The code numbers are assigned to accurately describe the diagnoses as well as the procedures performed to examine the diagnoses. The key is for the coding process to insure correct code selection for compliance with federal regulation and insurance requirements. Because the medical codes will be used extensively for reimbursement of hospital and physician claims, insurance and insurance fraud are the difficult topics that must be thoroughly understood. This book focuses on the technical topics of the exam.
