By: Christine Smidt, BA, CPC, CRC
Our mission as the CHPA Risk Adjustment team is to empower the coders of our CHCs in Risk Adjustment coding. As we all know, medical coding entails digging deep into the details of every encounter, and we know the challenges presented by this task alone! Our hope is to equip our CHC coders with knowledge of the importance of HCC diagnosis coding.
To accurately reveal the true status of our patient’s health conditions, we must code to the highest level of specificity. With this goal in mind, CHPA has formed the Coding Peer Group. It has been created to support the coders in our CHCs to take the necessary steps to support providers and coders to accurately capture HCC codes.
Meeting monthly on the third Wednesday of the month at 12-1 pm, we begin each peer group meeting with a brief review of Risk Adjustment to explain its importance. Followed by a hot topic pertaining to ICD-10 coding to the highest level of specificity with emphasis on areas such as hypertension, diabetes, and behavioral health. We then hold a roundtable discussion to assure coders are comfortable with querying their providers when necessary to assure the correct code is captured. The meeting time will also be used to discuss successes and hardships in coding. The group can advise one another on best practices and how to overcome challenges. We as a network have built a strong community in this group and cannot wait to see what our next meeting brings!
