Bob Stump VA Medical Center

Role Description This position is in the Health Information Management (HIM) section at the Northern Arizona VA Medical Center. MRT (Coder) Auditor's are skilled in classifying medical data from patient health records in the hospital setting, and/or physician-based settings, such as physician offices, group practices, multi-specialty clinics, and specialty centers. These coding practitioners analyze and abstract patients' health records and assign alpha-numeric codes for each diagnosis and procedure. Responsibilities - Utilize computer applications with varied functions to produce a wide range of reports, abstract records, and review assigned codes. - Perform audits of encounters to identify areas of noncompliance in coding. - Facilitate improved overall quality, completeness, and accuracy of coded data. - Work with staff to ensure that regulations are met or areas of weakness are identified and reported to appropriate supervisor for corrective action. - Select and assign codes from the current version of several coding systems including ICD, CPT, and/or HCPCS. - Adhere to accepted coding practices, guidelines, and conventions when choosing the most appropriate codes to ensure ethical, accurate, and complete coding. - Search the patient record to find documentation justifying code assignment based on an expanded knowledge of the organization and structure of the patient health record. - Perform audits of coded data, develop criteria, collect data, graph and analyze results, create reports, and communicate findings to appropriate leadership and groups. - Maintain statistical database(s) to track results and validate the program for identifying patterns and variations in coding practices with regular reports to the medical staff and management. - Assist in the development of guidelines for data quality, consistency, and monitoring for compliance to improve the quality for clinical, financial, and administrative data. Qualifications - Citizenship: Citizen of the United States. - Experience: One year of creditable experience that indicates knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, medical coding, and the structure and format of health records. - Education: An associate's degree from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education with a major field of study in health information technology/health information management, or a related degree with a minimum of 12 semester hours in health information technology/health information management. - Certification: Must have either Apprentice/Associate Level Certification, Mastery Level Certification, or Clinical Documentation Improvement Certification through AHIMA or AAPC. Requirements - One year of creditable experience equivalent to the journey grade level of a MRT (Coder). - Mastery level certification is required for all positions above the journey level. - Ability to research and solve complex questions related to coding conventions and guidelines in an accurate and timely manner. - Skill in interpersonal relations and conflict resolution to deal with individuals at all organizational levels. Benefits - Competitive salary and regular salary increases. - 37-50 days of annual paid time off per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year). - After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. - After 60 days of employment, full-time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs. - Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA. - Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care insurance options. - This position is telework eligible but may be required to return to the office permanently at a later date.