Quote:
Originally Posted by HospitalCoder
Speaking as a hospital coder, I guarantee that Covid coding was not falsified at my hospital in IL and any hospital who did try to cheat would very likely be caught and fined. Hospital coding goes through rigorous audits.
|
Whoa, whoa, whoa
Nobody was talking about falsified coding---ie: coding a COVID negative patient as if he/she had COVID
As a coder, you could only go by the diagnoses on the attestation signed by the physician. If the patient tested positive for COVID, that was listed as a diagnosis.
I'm sure, even at your hospital, the coding department encouraged all physicians to list every diagnosis on a given patient, and then your department put them in the most financially beneficial order. Some hospitals changed the primary diagnosis, apparently not yours, but frequently the order of listing is subjective.
But thank you for being honest and trying not to rip the taxpayer off.