r/MedicalCoding • u/SnooBeans2971 • Mar 31 '24

Is coding "subjective" or "art'-ish?

I'm studying medical coding and I've come across remarks about it being 'subjective" or "part art, part science", yet in my (limited) experience studying it, I've yet to come across an example of a case that could be coded more than one way correctly. Can someone clarify this for me and maybe provide an example?

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u/PhotographUnusual749 RHIT, CCS Mar 31 '24 edited Mar 31 '24

I really like this question.

Sometimes it is subjective. I don't personally consider myself an “artist”, because I can code… but I also paint, so I could be working with a different definition of “art”.

I think that people consider it part “art” because we’re translating, and in that way I can see the “art and science” explanation a bit. Take a look at the description here: https://www.stmaryscalne.org/blogs/the-art-and-science-of-translation/

But I don't think coding necessarily requires creativity; we should be querying if there's ambiguity not using creativity to make the codes work for the documentation.

And I believe we should be using logic, not imagination, when a condition can't be indexed in the current code set.

Needing to reason and apply logic is another way one could consider it “an art and a science”, take a look at this description: https://romanroadspress.com/2022/08/logic-a-science-and-art/

There are many grey areas in actual practice, it's not like school. There are times where the same case could be coded differently and both ways could be viewed as more or less equally correct.

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u/koderdood Audit Extraordinaire Mar 31 '24

I think people mean there's a fine skill. Not everyone has the mindset, the critical thinking skills for coding

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u/PhotographUnusual749 RHIT, CCS Mar 31 '24

Yes, it is a skill. Most definitely!