Can’t find enough medical coders in healthcare? Here’s what you can do.
Not a day goes by that you don’t hear or read about ongoing healthcare staffing shortages, including the medical coder shortage. Perhaps your medical practice is one of many that can’t recruit and retain enough qualified medical coders to handle one of the most important aspects of your business: Medical coding and claim submission.
Unfortunately, the lack of medical coders may only worsen. By 2033, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the demand for medical coders and other medical records specialists will grow nine percent which is much faster than average for all occupations. That’s about 15,000 openings each year. If not enough people - enter and stay in the profession, there may not be enough medical coders in healthcare—and it will be even harder to find medical coders than it is today.
Even if your medical practice has enough medical coders right now, you can’t assume you’ll be in the clear forever. People move, retire, or switch careers. In addition, your medical practice may acquire other offices, open new locations, expand hours or service lines, or hire additional providers. The result? You’ll need more medical coders. Or maybe you’ll need medical coders in healthcare with a different skillset. For example, what if you’re moving toward value-based payment contracts, and your medical coders’ skills are rooted in fee-for-service medical coding?
How to address the medical coder shortage
If you don’t proactively address potential staffing gaps, you may start to notice cashflow delays, denials, and other financial problems.
So what do you do to address a potential lack of medical coders? Here are some ideas to combat a medical coder shortage:
1. Know what you need.
You can’t plan ahead for a potential medical coder shortage if you don’t know what your medical practice needs both now and in the future. Knowing what you need means taking a closer look at historical patient volumes, patient severity, claim denial rates and other revenue cycle key performance indicators. It also means looking at your strategic plan moving forward. This information will help you understand how many—and what type of—medical coders you need. Be sure to perform this analysis frequently and especially during times of transition (e.g., mergers, acquisitions, or implementation of a new electronic health record). This is when a lack of medical coders can hit your medical practice medical especially hard.
2. Train your own medical coders. With a savvy medical practice manager in place or the help of consultants and professional associations, you may be able to create in-house programs designed to train medical coders from the ground up. That’s what one medical group recently did to expand the available pool of medical coders.
3. Consider outsourcing medical coding services.
When there’s a lack of medical coders, outsourcing can be a huge help. That’s because outsource partners often have a solid pipeline of talent from which to draw. They also provide all necessary training and can ramp up and down, as needed. Consider all of the benefits of outsourcing medical coding as you make your decision.
4. Automate.
Consider computer assisted medical coding and other ways to automate the revenue cycle so your existing staff can be more productive. That way, if you lose a medical coder, you may feel less of an impact until you hire someone new—or you may even be able to focus on gradual workforce reduction through attrition.
5. Reconsider your employment package.
Even despite medical coders shortages, medical coders are out there. You just need to attract them to your medical practice. If they’re already employed, they’re not going to make a move unless it’s worth it. This doesn’t always mean more money, but it could. Consider paying above the average salary for medical coders in your state and based on other factors (e.g., credentials, job setting, and years of experience). However, you could also offer additional perks like money for continuing education, flexible schedule, remote work options, and more—especially when the individual has the skillset you need.
If you decide to go remote, be sure to use a detailed onboarding process so the remote medical coder feels part of your revenue cycle management team. This process should include education about the company handbook and policies as well as productivity and quality expectations. You may also want to consider a medical coder mentorship program with a senior medical coder. You can use parts of this same process when partnering with a remote outsource medical coding vendor as well.
Medical coders in healthcare: Looking ahead
Medical coder shortages won’t likely dissipate anytime soon. But there are ways you can stay ahead of potential challenges to minimize the impact on overall operations and revenue cycle management, including outsourcing medical coding services. Learn how edgeMED can help.
