title: Improving Orthopedic Resident Knowledge of Documentation, Coding, and Medicare Fraud.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most residency programs still lack formal education and training on the basic clinical documentation and coding principles. Today's physicians are continuously being held to increasing standards for correct coding and documentation, yet little has changed in the residency training curricula to keep pace with these increasing standards. Although there are many barriers to implementing these topics formally, the main concern has been the lack of time and resources. Thus, simple models may have the best chance for success at widespread implementation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The first goal of the study was to assess a group of orthopedic residents' fund of knowledge regarding basic clinical documentation guidelines, coding principles, and their ability to appropriately identify cases of Medicare fraud. The second goal was to analyze a single, high-yield educational session's effect on overall resident knowledge acquisition and awareness of these concepts.
  Orthopedic residents belonging to 1 of 2 separate residency programs voluntarily and anonymously participated. All were asked to complete a baseline assessment examination, followed by attending a 45-minute lecture given by the same orthopedic faculty member who remained blinded to the test questions. Each resident then completed a postsession examination. Each resident was also asked to self-rate his or her documentation and coding level of comfort on a Likert scale (1-5). Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 32 orthopedic residents were participated. Increasing postgraduate year-level of training correlated with higher Likert-scale ratings for self-perceived comfort levels with documentation and coding. However, the baseline examination scores were no different between senior and junior residents (p > 0.20). The high-yield teaching session significantly improved the average total examination scores at both sites (p < 0.01), with overall improvement being similar between the 2 groups (p > 0.10).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current healthcare environment necessitates better physician awareness regarding clinical documentation guidelines and coding principles. Very few adjustments to incorporate these teachings have been made to most residency training curricula, and the lack of time and resources remains the concern of many surgical programs. We have demonstrated that orthopedic resident knowledge in these important areas drastically improves after a single, high-yield 45-minute teaching session.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: orthopedicpapers@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Matthew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Varacallo
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Herman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D059019:Clinical Coding / Q000379:methods*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003162:Competency-Based Education / Q000379:methods; D003479:Curriculum; D004282:Documentation / Q000379:methods*; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D005607:Fraud; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D009985:Orthopedics / Q000193:education*; D014481:United States
keywords: Medicare fraud; Patient Care; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; Professionalism; core competencies; orthopedic residency; residency curriculum; resident coding; resident documentation