The healthcare industry has been no stranger to shortages of qualified workers over the few years, and the coding workforce is no exception to this trend. There is a need for more medical coders across the U.S., making it increasingly more challenging to find skilled and credentialed coders who can execute the specific type of coding medical corporations need.
At Shearwater Health, we are committed to solving this problem by providing highly skilled certified coders. Shearwater’s process seeks out allied health professionals or nursing professionals with a healthcare background, where we can then train them in coding. Because they already possess essential clinical skills, it makes the coding piece of training a smoother and quicker transition. Our goal is to provide a robust training process by partnering with industry leaders in education. By using a hybrid approach with skilled coding trainers plus rigorous online courses and real-life case scenarios, scholars get an in-depth training process that prepares them for the coding certification exam. 100% of our coders are credentialed through AHIMA, AAPC, or Decision Health (home health). Our pass rates are significantly higher than the industry rate with 90% passing the credentialing exam on the first try (the industry standard falls between 60-70%).
When outsourcing coders with Shearwater Health, you can expect added value for your organization in many ways. The benefits, training, and credentials of the coders are all covered by Shearwater as they are our employees. Thus, companies receive a skilled coder without the hassle of the employment process. Shearwater ensures that all coders take and pass quarterly coding update training.
The key differentiator when outsourcing with Shearwater is all our coders are credentialed. Many companies don’t credential all coders. Additionally, we offer inpatient coding, which is the most difficult type of coding thus options are limited. Inpatient coding involves complex documentation to review for proper coding of diagnoses and procedures. If done wrong, the healthcare facility can experience inaccurate reimbursement and denials. Organizations are typically hesitant to outsource offshore coders to handle high-dollar accounts, but Shearwater’s skilled coding workforce can handle the most challenging, high-risk type of records.
Melanie Kiss-Endicott, VP of Coding Education at Shearwater states, “Seeing the work ethic and willingness to learn from our coding students has been phenomenal. They strive for perfection and it’s commendable.” With Shearwater Health your organization will benefit from meaningful collaboration to customize, configure, and onboard your dedicated nurse coding team.
About Shearwater Health
Because of a shortage of clinicians, it’s often difficult to scale healthcare organizations. Shearwater Health provides teams of remote and onsite clinicians that expand the size and impact of clinical teams so that clients can focus on internal teams practicing at the peak of their license. From bedside to back-office, there are over 4,000 Shearwater clinicians solving medical and administrative problems every hour of every day all over the world. Shearwater combines clinical expertise with Six sigma process excellence and RPA technology to improve healthcare outcomes.
