Why The Value Of Coding Certification Has Increased In Recent Years

Why The Value Of Medical Coding Certification Has Increased In Recent Years

In recent years, the field of medical coding has expanded at an exponential rate. This is because as process automation has increased within almost all organizations, manual entry of medical records and information has proved to be a comparatively very slow and time consuming process. Also, computer algorithms cannot understand basic words and their applications such as differences between two different types of surgeries or the meaning of surgery itself. Thus if a unique code is attached to each different type of surgery, the computer can instantly recognize the exact surgical procedure that was followed and can streamline the process that compliments the procedure.

Coding certification has found extensive use within the medical insurance field. As nowadays more and more people are getting health insurance due to a number of reasons ranging from increased awareness to higher medical costs, the work burden on these insurance companies is increasing. Thus it would be time consuming to explain in words exactly what disease a patient had and what diagnostic procedure was followed and thus a consumer claim would take an extensive amount of time to settle. However if the process underwent medical coding and each procedure was allotted a separate code which was able to be worked on by computers, the process of billing and reimbursing the outstanding amount to clients would become much more easier.

Thus insurance companies have invested heavily over the years in installing coding systems into their workplaces and naturally they also require coders to run the processes. Larger corporations often hire more people with coding certification than those who are not certified as they cannot be entirely trusted to take care of important processes with maximum efficiency. Thus the demand of people with coding certification has also increased which has indirectly led to an increase in the demand of coding certification in general. And as in recent times the demand for certified coders has increased by a much larger factor than the supply, wage rates have tended to increase significantly across the entire industry.

Coding certification has also increased in importance in recent times because of the changes in the examination system which recently removed the three section structure and set a passing percentage of 70%. Along with that the questions are being tailored more and more towards practical assessment of the topics instead of theoretical knowledge. This means that those people who were previously able to clear the test mainly due to their performance in theory examinations and did not know so much about practical application of topics are now at a severe disadvantage. Thus the percentage of people passing the examination easily has fallen which has also led to the increase in value of the examination.