Medical Coding Student's ICD-10 Quiz

ICD-10-PCS Approaches

A short article from JustCoding's ICD-10 Trainer section that details the seven approaches used in the ICD-10-PCS medical and surgical section: open, percutaneous, percutaneous endoscopic, via natural or artificial opening, via natural or artificial opening endoscopic, open with percutaneous endoscopic assistance, and external. The article gives a brief description of each approach.

LINK: ICD-10-PCS surgery: It’s all in the approach | ICD-10 Trainer

Job Salary Search Tool

Working on your degree or certification and interested in what you might expect to make when you embark on your new career? I have a great tool for you: Indeed.com's Salary Search feature.

Indeed.com is one of my favorite job search sites. I used its email job alerts tool during my last job search and found it super useful. One of the other tools offered on the site is the aforementioned 'Salary Search'.

Yes, like the rest of the Indeed.com job search site, the salary search section is...well...'no frills'. However, I think many will find this feature useful despite a lack of visual pizzaz. :)

It's a snap to use: simply enter a job title and location, click 'View Salary' and you'll be presented with a series of graphs/charts detailing the average salary for the location specified, national salary trend for the position you searched for, and jobs that might interest you based on your search.

I especially like the 'compare' feature that allows you to compare salaries among various locations for the same job title or among various job titles in the same geographical area.

How accurate is it? Based on strictly anecdotal evidence, it was very accurate for a few searches I performed. Of course, as with all tools like this, you'd be wise to take the results with a grain of salt.

LINK: Indeed.com Salary Search

Resource: ADHI

Professional organization for those involved in the medical transcription profession.

LINK: Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI)

Resource: Lab Tests Online

Searchable database of lab tests, diseases/conditions, and more.

Lab Tests Online

Resource: CenterWatch

CenterWatch is one of my favorite resources. I use it on a regular basis as a reference site.

The CenterWatch FDA-Approved Drugs section allows you to sort medications by the year approved, manufacturer, treatment area, or by drug name.

Extremely useful tool.

LINK: FDA Approved DrugS | CenterWatch

Resource: MedlinePlus

MedlinePlus offers a searchable and browsable database of 900+ diseases/health conditions.

LINK: Health Topics: MedlinePlus

Resource: Boston Scientific's Procedures Section

The Procedures section of Boston Scientific's website offers information on many procedures that may be of assistance to coders. You can check it out here:

LINK: Boston Scientific > Procedures

Booz Allen: Good care about connectivity, data, speed of treatment | Government Health IT

Article on the advantages of health IT.

LINK: Booz Allen: Good care about connectivity, data, speed of treatment | Government Health IT

How ICD-10 can create opportunities for medical coders | ICD10 Watch

Article by Kristi Stanton of CoderCoach detailing the opportunities that the upcoming ICD-10 implementation could bring...
LINK: How ICD-10 can create opportunities for medical coders | ICD10 Watch

A Real GEM

No, not diamonds, sapphires, or pearls. The 'GEM' I'm referring to is the acronym for General Equivalence Mappings.

A GEM functions somewhat similar to the translation sites that abound online. I'm sure most of us have used - or at least seen - a number of these. For example, you input a word in English and are presented with the French equivalent (or closest approximation) and vice versa.

For those in coding and those of us preparing the enter the field, the ICD-9/ICD-10 GEM will be of particular interest.

I found a very good article by Rhonda Butler in the AHIMA Body of Knowledge site that provides a nice tutorial on the subject:

LINK: The ICD-10 General Equivalence Mappings: Bridging the Translation Gap from ICD-9 by Rhonda Butler

New 3M software aims to increase medical coding productivity | ICD10 Watch

Interesting article by Carl Natale of ICD10 Watch reviewing 3M's 360 Encompass System application.

I was especially interested in the fact that while coding in ICD-9 one can view the ICD-10 equivalent and the integrated anatomy images to aid in coding.

LINK: New 3M software aims to increase medical coding productivity | ICD10 Watch

Brush Up on Your Anatomy Knowledge...

I think it's safe to say that there seems to be a consensus that ICD-10 will be much more anatomy-intensive than ICD-9. So if you could use an A&P refresher, why wait? Start reviewing now.

One online resource you might be interested in is Bartleby.com's online version of Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body. I found the online table of contents to be a little tedious and the search function wasn't particularly helpful, in my opinion, but some might find it a useful resource site.

LINK: Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, accessible via Bartleby.com

Resource: CMS ICD-10 Overview

A general overview of ICD-10 CM and ICD-PCS courtesy of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Essentially, this is a quick synopsis of the diagnosis and procedural coding systems, advantages of ICD-10 over ICD-9, and a few examples of codes. Geared toward introducing providers to the ICD-10 CM and ICD-10 PCS classification systems.

LINK: ICD 10 CM/PCS: An Introduction

Resource: JustCoding's Forums

JustCoding's forums are not especially active, but visitors can choose among several subject areas, such as: ICD-9, ICD-10, CPT, and networking forums (in addition to several other options).

There seems to be a lack of quality, active forums related to medical coding - or perhaps I just haven't stumbled upon them yet.

At any rate, there are a few topics that might be of interest, but it's likely that you'll want to participate in a more active discussion environment.

LINK: JustCoding: Forums

Job Search: Maxim Health Information Services

Search for remote, travel, or onsite medical coding jobs, as well as clinical documentation improvement and auditing jobs.

LINK: Maxim Health Information Services Job Search

Resource: The Merck Manual Online

A superb resource, The Merck Manual Online offers information for healthcare professionals (as well as consumers).

There is a considerable amount of detailed information on medical conditions and symptoms and access is free. There are also resources not available in the print edition that are accessible via the website.

Whether you need to research symptoms of a particular condition or information related to a drug, you will likely find what you are looking for on The Merck Manual Online website.

LINK: The Merck Manual Online

Resource: MediLexicon

I am a big fan of MediLexicon.

MediLexicon is a site that offers various resources/tools that should prove very useful to anyone involved in healthcare.

Here are a few of the sections featured on the site:

• medical abbreviation search
• medical dictionary
• drug information database
• surgical equipment reference
• medical headlines

I like the user-friendly interface and the clean search results. I also am fond of all these resources being 'under one roof', so to speak.

For ICD lookup, I'd go elsewhere; however, overall I find the other tools available onsite very useful and well-organized.

Resource: For The Record

For The Record magazine is an information resource for health information professionals.

The website offers an extensive array of in-depth articles on topics of interest to HIM professionals - plan on spending some time here; lots of information!

The website is a companion to the print magazine, which is offered free if the subscriber meets certain criteria or for a fee otherwise.

LINK: For The Record

Resource: JustCoding's Ask the Expert

JustCoding offers an Ask the Expert section which highlights articles from JustCoding News.

The questions serve as great opportunities to increase one's knowledge of coding procedures.

There is a large archive of previous Q&As, so it provides ample material to hone your coding skills!

LINK: JustCoding Ask the Expert Article Archive

Are You Ready for ICD-10?

This fall, I was a member of one of the first groups of students in our HIM program to take the ICD-10 CM/PCS coding course. Having started the program in the spring of 2011 and having no coding experience prior to enrolling, I really have nothing to compare ICD-10 to - after all, I wasn't transitioning from ICD-9 to ICD-10.

Based on what I have read, however, there seems to be much apprehension regarding ICD-10 among those used to the current system.

Being new to ICD-10 - and to coding in general - I have to say that I found the procedure coding much easier and more intuitive than the diagnosis coding. That being said, however, I found the exacting terminology and the plethora of root operations for the procedure coding aspect somewhat daunting. So, needless to say, I was happy to stumble upon JustCoding's ICD-10 Trainer site.

The site provides a short synopsis on many of the ICD-10-PCS root operations, which is very helpful for a newbie, such as myself. :)

That being said, the blog offers much more information in addition to the aforementioned ICD-10-PCS articles.While it's not an exhaustive, in-depth resource on all things ICD-10, I think many students and current coders will find the information provided useful.

LINK: JustCoding's ICD-10 Trainer

HIM Insider: Forums

ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals offers readers a chance to interact via the HIM Insider: Forums. Actually, "forums" is a misnomer - there is only one discussion board on the site. Unfortunately, it's not very active either.

Most questions seem to center around billing and coding and seeking advice on entering the profession.

Some individual threads are active and it seems as though more experienced professionals are willing to offer advice to those new to the field, so it might be worth a look.

LINK: HIM Insider: Forums

Resource: Health Information Careers

AHIMA's Health Information Careers website offers academic and career resources for those considering the field of health information management.

The site includes and interactive Pathfinder tool that asks a series of questions to determine which certificate or credential might best suit the individual's needs. (As might be suspected since the site is a service of AHIMA, the credentials are AHIMA certifications.)

The site also provides a bit of information on health information management in general and links are provided to the AHIMA site to locate a mentor, among other things.

There is not an abundance of information that those familiar with HIM would find particularly useful, in my opinion. However, the site is a decent resource for those considering pursuing a career in health information management.

LINK: Health Information Careers

2009 HIM Salary Survey

The 2009 salary survey published on the ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals website offers a glimpse into the sectors within HIM that are well compensated, which job setting is the most prevalent among HIM professionals, and more information of interest to those currently employed as a medical coder, medical transcriptionist, or other HIM-related career.

The information was garnered from reader responses.

The survey encompasses a total of 29 job titles, but detailed information is only available for coder salaries, HIM manager salaries, cancer registrar salaries, and medical transcriptionist salaries.

LINK: ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals 2009 Salary Survey Results

Blog Spotlight: Coder Coach

Admittedly, I'm a little biased in regard to the blog I'm featuring today, as the blog's owner was kind enough to allow me to interview her for one of my health information management course assignments. :)

I love the Coder Coach blog, not only because coding is a passion of mine and there is much to be learned by perusing the site, but also because I admire Kristi's spirit of giving back to the coding community.

I  especially like to pore over the experiences and advice Kristi offers for those of us who are new to the world of HIM. She shares some of her personal experience in the coding world, which, in my opinion, is very valuable in transitioning from the academic setting to real world employment.

Take advantage of this free 'virtual mentoring' resource!

Link: Coder Coach

iFlashcards

The iFlashcards site and Android app were invaluable to me during my medical terminology course.

The site may not be the most visually appealing, but this little app is a 'can't live without' tool in my book.

You can create a set of cards for free, but if you want to make them private, you will need to create an account - which is also free.

Basically, you simply create a front and back for your cards and then you save the set (they can be edited at a later date if desired).

The cards can be used for vocabulary testing, which is what I used during them for during my med term course, but there are also options for creating multiple choice card sets as well as including images.

The neatest aspect of the application, however, is the ability to login to your cards via the iFlashcards app. Once you access the card sets via your smartphone, you 'flip' them by tapping the screen. If you answered correctly, you press the 'O' and if you missed, you press the 'X'. After you have worked your way thru the entire card set, you are presented with your stats, letting you know your percentage.

This is a super way to get a little extra studying in while waiting in line, when you have a few minutes to kill, etc.

I highly recommend this app for the HIM students among us.

LINK: iFlashcards app by David Skelly

Free Online Medical Terminology Quiz

Visit the American Association of Medical Assistants website and take a free 50 question medical terminology quiz.

LINK: CMA (AAMA) Practice Exam: Medical Terminology

Free Online A&P Quiz

Visit the American Association of Medical Assistants website and take their 50 question, multiple-choice anatomy and physiology quiz.

LINK: CMA (AAMA) Practice Exam: Anatomy and Physiology

Connect with Other Coders

Coding quandry? Want input from colleagues? Maybe you're new to medical billing and coding and want the advice of seasoned professionals.

The AAPC Medical Coding & Billing Forums are a good place to garner bits of information regarding medical coding, as well as helpful advice from those who have been in the field for some time.

The site is one of my favorite coding messageboards to browse. Anyone is allowed to read, but you must be a member to respond to messages or to post a new message.

Link: AAPC Medical Coding & Billing Forums

Resource: AAPC

AAPC is a professional organization for physician-based coders. At the time of this article, membership was listed as over 110,000 members.

AAPC offers certification in auditing, compliance, and offers an extensive array of outpatient medical coding credentials - including 20 specialty coding credentials.

The AAPC website offers an article database, information on training/certification, and an active forum for coding questions and discussion related to medical coding careers.

Link: AAPC

CCS Prep from ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals

ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals includes a nice section aimed at those preparing to take the CCS or CCS-P exams.

I especially like this series because it provides an article on a featured topic and then a short quiz based on what you learned in the article.

Articles back to 2000 are linked. As with other coding practice archives, though, one must remember that the quizzes/answers are based on the guidelines and codes that were in effect at the time the article was written, so the older articles and quizzes may not conform to the current coding landscape.

LINK: ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals: CCS Prep

Resource: AHIMA

The premier professional organization for health information management, AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association), offers a considerable amount of useful information on their web site.

The AHIMA Body of Knowledge section of the site includes an extensive collection of health information management articles from various AHIMA publications as well as outside sources. However, it should be noted that much of this information is only accessible to AHIMA members.

Detailed information regarding certification for the RHIA, RHIT, CCA, CCS, CCS-P, CHDA, and CHPS credentials, as well as the new CDIP credential is available on the web site, as is information regarding academic programs related to careers in health information management.

There are also newsletters and community features available to members only.

Link: American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)

Resource: HCPro

HCPro's Health Information Management section offers a wealth of information for HIM students and professionals.

The site includes an article directory (some of which are free to read, some require subscription), blogs, free newsletters, and various resource links.

Link: HCPro: Health Information Management

Code This! Medical Case Scenarios from OptumInsight

OptumInsight (formerly Ingenix) offers free practice coding scenarios on their website.

I like these because they have more of a real world feel in terms of what you might see on an actual record. Granted, all the information is provided and you simply have to find the code, but I personally like the case scenario practice examples such as these.

You have to wait until the next time that section of the site is updated to find the answer.

They do have the past scenarios archived all the way back to January 2006, as well, so there's quite a bit of info available -- of course guidelines and/or codes may have been updated since the questions were posted.

Link: OptumInsight: Code This!

Monday Coding Quiz from Journal of AHIMA

Each week, Journal of AHIMA publishes the Monday Coding Quiz.

Questions primarily consist of coding scenarios, but other aspects of health information management, such as HIPAA, documentation, and reimbursement issues are sometimes included.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The information is obtained from various AHIMA press publications.

Certainly not very content-heavy, but a quick way to get a little coding info at the start of the week.

Link: Journal of AHIMA: Monday Coding Quiz