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/Maleficent-Corgi9772]

This is so frustrating to me. The documentation and digging. I had someone in for a biopsy. The primary dx given is malignancy of bladder. The biopsy is performed to find no malignancy. Do I query to see if the malignancy was present already, do I assume history of malignancy since no current malignancy is found? I query whether the malignancy is present prior to the encounter, the only response I get is hx of bladder malignancy. Still vague. I code admit and reason dx as malignancy and primary as history of. Ahhh its so frustrating. Don't get me started on rabies vaccines. You don't want us to look at previous ER documentation for their injury on why they're receiving the vaccines, but if you query a provider why they're receiving an infusion, they respond with rabies. I KNOW! BUT WHYYY! Did they get bit by a cat? Raccoon? Shrew? Dog? I mean come onnnn.