How ethical are we as a coder?
The medical profession has long subscribed to a body of ethical statements developed primarily for the benefit of the patient. As a member of this profession, a physician must recognize responsibility to patients first and foremost, as well as to the society, to other health professionals, and to self.
The question that arises is what does one do when coding productivity is more important than ethics at their workplace?
Many of the coders are employed in an environment where ethics fall far below productivity on the scale of importance. So what does one do to stand up to this type of pressure? When the pressure is for productivity numbers, the terms ?quality,? ?accuracy,? and ?integrity? are not even part of the communication.
The Ethics Committee would never waste time on a case where the coding was deemed inaccurate because one wasn?t given sufficient time to do the job properly, especially where one expressed the concern with your employer. The impact of those mistakes will fall where they belong, on the practice. The practice will be forced to refund overpayments or may suffer payment delays or denials because of those mistakes. Although the practice may seek to place the blame on you for the errors, the evidence of your previously-raised concerns would undermine such allegations. The Code of Ethics would come into play only if one purposefully or negligently misrepresented services for the purpose of receiving some personal benefit related to the work as a coder which doesn?t seem to be the issue here.
Productivity improvement and efficiency are not improper goals for any organization but they are the keys to profitability. There is a balance, however, that must be found. Pure productivity based on how many claims one must code becomes counterproductive when one has insufficient time to ensure codes reported are justified or accurate.