The Dual Role of Virtual Medical Scribes - Charting and Coding

The Dual Role of Virtual Medical Scribes - Charting and Coding

The use of virtual medical scribes has become increasingly popular in the recent years, as medical practices across the country are on the constant lookout for ways to reduce clinical documentation overload, thereby improving overall productivity. Asides this, physicians have started to hire virtual scribes to take care of the medical coding part as well as they see a very close relationship between the scribe and coder. Hence, by increasing the coding training, virtual scribes have begun to morph into a broader role of assuming the coding responsibilities as well in addition to completing real-time documentation in the EHR. This creates an ideal situation for ensuring that both documentation as well as coding is completed in real-time and not several days later. Sounds interesting, isn’t it. Read on to learn more.

Virtual scribes assume a dual role

Time constraints and the current shortage of certified coders who stay up-to-date on new coding and industry changes are forcing physicians to look for alternate solutions. Enter virtual medical scribes. Apart from taking notes and helping with documenting in the EHR they also determine and enter the appropriate codes needed for medical billing purposes. Professional outsourcing companies undertake to provide the relevant coding training and the certifications in order to equip them for this crucial task. Today, virtual scribes are helping physicians focus on patient care by taking over the EHR related tasks as well as inputting ICD and CPT codes to ensure appropriate and timely reimbursements.

1. Bringing documentation and coding together

Integrating coding as and when clinical documentation is created is like killing two birds with one stone. You manage to get two things done by one skilled person that saves a significant amount of time, energy, and stress.




2. Quality charts and accurate coding

Virtual medical scribes not only complete charts in real-time but also assign diagnostic and procedural codes for each patient encounter. We know that scribes are charting specialists and provide accurate and detailed charting. Improved quality of documentation ensures the most accurate code assignment for reimbursements. Besides being regarded as the best resource for providing quality documentation they also rigorously trained to assign the correct ICD and CPT codes, which optimizes billing and streamlines revenue generation.




3. Saves time and cost

With the virtual medical scribe to take over the coding responsibilities, helps save time and operating costs for the physician practice. The outsourcing partner hires and trains and virtual scribes to perform this dual role – documentation and coding. So, as a physician you need not worry about hiring, training, and monitoring additional medical scribing or coding staff. Outsourcing to an industry leader in virtual scribing takes care of both. During the patient visit, while documenting the encounter they enter the diagnostic and procedural codes as well.

4. Online program for medical scribing and coding training

Professional outsourcing companies also hire experts who have completed a diploma in “The Medical Coding and Scribing Program”. This program is an online course specially designed to provide the right training needed to equip a candidate with the skills needed to provide real-time documentation support during patient visits as well as perform abstracting and coding of medical records. On successful completion of the course the candidate will not only be proficient in documenting physician-patient encounters into the EHRs in real-time but also assign diagnostic and procedures codes relevant for the reimbursement process.

Medical scribes are a cost-effective addition to your practice. Besides providing documentation assistance they also assist with entering the right codes to bill the right amount for each diagnosis and treatment provided, which makes up a crucial part of medical claims. If you are looking to accomplish two objectives with a single approach, ie., hire a virtual medical scribe to document physician-patient interactions and also ensure that all pertinent information is coded appropriately to achieve consistency and accuracy. Virtual medical scribes are not just documentation experts but with three weeks to three months of specialized training can provide the right codes for billing procedures. If you are looking to take the advantage of this combined approach- the benefits of quality documentation and accurate coding get in touch with Scribe4Me. Get set to explore the benefits of having a virtual scribe with medical coding experience to improve billing accuracy.


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