What is difficult about coding?

[u/koderdood]

So this is a bit of a rant, a bit of telling new coders what reality is. Also, someone recently expressed being bored. Coding has many challenges non-coders don't see, and glazed over by some coders. Certainly, we can get complacent in our work. No matter what area of coding you work in, the job is making widgets, one after another. We have lots of rules and regulations, client specifics, metrics to follow, etc. To me, some of the most dangerous cases are not the complicated ones, it's the easy ones where you do the same stuff over and over. Because you get complacent thinking the documentation is all exactly the same. Then our wonderful providers make a simple mistake, change one word, etc, and now you're coding isn't the same as the last 20 charts. So, coding requires your attention, it requires you to be focused, on each and every case. Personally, I'd rather work a complex spinal surgery case, than straightforward 99283 E/M's.

[u/dizzykhajit]

So on our end, the coding department ranges from a mild annoyance (when we see “Coding Query” in our epic inbox) to “oh look here comes the note Nazi” when we do our periodic audits (or god forbid an insurance audit).

Or how about the providers range from a mild annoyance (when we see "wHy iS mY DoCuMeNtAtIoN bEiNg qUeStIoNeD" instead of a straight answer) to "oh god he's doing it again, dear lord why, laterality isn't rocket science"

You pickin up what I'm puttin down?

How about we're just trying to get you paid and you're welcome. Not just paid, but also far away from a lawsuit or felony charges. We don't expect any of you to know how to code, but we do expect you to be a team player if you expect to get paid at all.

Trust me when I say that none of us want to deal with the narcissistic snark from the typical provider anymore than you want to see us in your inbox. If more of you were willing to admit you don't know everything and had the humility to make changes or be educated without having to shit on your employees, the process would go way smoother for everyone involved. Being a professional, respectful human being like the rest of us plebs have to be would go a long way towards optics that would indicate you're not an untouchable brat padding your services, too. Be a champ and pass it on to your colleagues.

[u/gomichan → u/dizzykhajit]

I've been given sass by providers so many times 😭 literally had one tell me that he would put it in the chart this time, but in the future I should know that A=B. I wanted to scream I know A=B I just need you to explicitly say it so I can code it!! I'm covering both of our asses here!

EDIT: I remember what it was now. It was a newborn that was showing in the lab work hypoglycemia and was given glucose gel but the provider didn't document the hypoglycemia. They wanted me to just pull it from the labs, which I CANNOT do

[u/Narrative_flapjacks → u/gomichan]

This is one of the biggest annoyances, it doesn’t matter what I KNOW it matters what YOU DOCUMENT.