By Melanie Kiss-Endicott, MBA/HCM, RHIA, CDIP, CHDA, CPHI, CCS, CCS-P, FAHIMA
The demand for experienced, certified medical coders is a constant challenge for healthcare organizations. One solution for this demand is outsourcing medical coding to companies with offshore coders to supplement your current team. Offshoring has several benefits, including cost savings, a highly qualified labor pool, and turnaround time. Let’s answer some of the commonly asked questions about offshore coding.
How does the time difference of offshore coders affect business?
It enhances business! When the U.S. coding workforce is finished with their day and relaxing at home watching the nightly news, offshore coders are just beginning their workday and can complete the cases at the end of each day. This can significantly increase productivity and keep that DNFB (Discharged Not Final Billed) down. Stay aware of the time difference and use it to your advantage.
Problems at the end of the day state-side can be solved overnight by your offshore team, keeping the coding process moving forward.
What are the best practices for managing a blended domestic and offshore workforce?
One of the results of COVID has been the increase in remote work among all coders. With everyone now remote, there is a lesser difference in managing staff between domestic and offshore. Robust communication and consistent education are essential. Take the same steps one would take to keep your domestic staff engaged, challenged, and all on the same page.
How can utilizing offshore services increase the quality and productivity of my current domestic coders?
The benefit of bringing on additional coding resources, whether domestic or offshore, is more than just addressing a backlog. Use the opportunity to challenge staff to learn new skills and improve their productivity. Depending on your requirements, you may wish for individual coders to specialize in a specific area or, conversely, to become more broadly trained and able to code anything in their queue. Challenge your current staff to assume new responsibilities that build on their excellent coding skills and organization knowledge. Auditing and clinical documentation improvement can be significant next steps for skilled coders.
Are offshore coders certified?
I can’t speak for all offshore coding companies, but Shearwater Health has a robust Coding Academy training program that prepares coding students for either the AHIMA CCS® credential for inpatient or the AAPC CPC® credential for outpatient. We recently partnered with Libman Education to offer online coding courses as part of the Coding Academy curriculum.
Would an offshore team affect the quality of coding?
Offshore coding companies typically have a very high standard of quality. When selecting an offshore vendor, be sure to ask about their quality standards and auditing practices.
In summary, partnering with an offshore coding company can help increase productivity, decrease DNFB, and supplement your U.S. coding team by providing coding services around the clock.
Melanie Kiss-Endicott, MBA/HCM, RHIA, CDIP, CHDA, CPHI, CCS, CCS-P, FAHIMA
Vice President, Coding Education
Shearwater Health
Melanie has over 20 years of experience in health information management (HIM), focusing on coding and clinical documentation improvement (CDI). During her career, she has trained tens of thousands of coding and CDI professionals across the United States and around the globe through her work at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and several colleges and universities. She is an internationally-recognized speaker, author, and educator in the HIM field.
Melanie joined Shearwater in 2021 to further develop and enhance the medical coder training program to ensure that the coders are well-prepared to be high-quality coders. The coders have rigorous training standards, and all are certified by either AHIMA or AAPC.
About Shearwater Health:
Shearwater Health is revolutionizing Clinical Process Outsourcing. Our clinical expertise includes a dedication to quality, flexible modes of support, both live and virtual, the ability to follow complex clinical workflows, and meets industry standards for security and compliance.
