The bill drops here. Concurrent coding reduces billing delays, improves accuracy and saves time and money.
OBJECTIVE
Salinas Valley wanted to improve its reporting procedures to payors for reimbursement. Delays in reporting referred outpatients and inpatients can significantly impact receipt of reimbursements from payors.


METHODS
Salinas Valley developed a program of concurrent coding in which every procedure is assigned a reimbursement code that is automatically registered in the patient's B/AR record when the procedure is logged into any of the clinical applications in the healthcare information system.


RESULTS
Quicker turnaround on receiving payments from payors, as well as an increased return on investment as the ratio of reimbursement to cost-of-time-spent increases.


CONCLUSIONS
Integral to the success of the concurrent coding review program was the openness of the operating system at Salinas Valley.
Duncan
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D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000379:methods; D000067:Accounts Payable and Receivable; D002140:California; D003211:Concurrent Review; D005568:Forms and Records Control / Q000379:methods*; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000191:economics*; D007344:Insurance Claim Reporting; D019982:Organizational Case Studies