[Hiring] Medical Records Technician @VA Northern California Health Care System

Role Description

This position is in the Health Information Management Section at the VA Northern California Health Care System. Certified Coders classify medical data from patient health records. Seeking candidates with robust inpatient coding experience for a complex, multi-specialty Acute Care Hospital. Expertise in ICU coding, psychiatric inpatient admissions, complex surgical procedures using ICD10-PCS and DRG assignment is required. Experience in high volume, tertiary, or academic hospitals is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Assigns codes to documented patient care encounters (inpatient facility and/or professional services) covering the full range of health care services provided by the VA Medical Center.
• Applies advanced knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy & physiology, disease processes, treatment modalities, diagnostic tests, medications, procedures as well as the principles and practices of health services and the organizational structure to ensure proper code selection.
• Selects and assigns diagnosis and procedure codes from the current version of several coding systems to include current versions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), ICD-10 Procedural Coding System (PCS), Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), and/or Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS).
• Applies advanced knowledge of ICD-10-PCS multiaxial structure and standardized methodology to assign inpatient surgical/procedure coding using the ICD-10-PCS official code set.
• Adheres to accepted coding practices, guidelines and conventions when choosing the most appropriate diagnosis, operation, or procedure code to ensure ethical, accurate, and complete coding.
• Monitors ever-changing regulatory and policy requirements affecting coded information for the full spectrum of services provided by the VA Medical Center. Timely compliance with coding changes is crucial to the accuracy of the facility database as well as all cost recovery programs.
• Performs a comprehensive review of the patient health record to abstract medical, surgical, ancillary, demographic, social, and administrative data to ensure complete data capture.
• Assists facility staff with documentation requirements to completely and accurately reflect the patient care provided; provides technical support in the areas of regulations and policy, coding requirements, resident supervision, reimbursement, workload, accepted nomenclature, and proper sequencing.
• Ensures provider documentation is complete and supports the diagnoses and procedures coded. Directly consults with the professional staff for clarification of conflicting or ambiguous clinical data.
• Reports incorrect documentation or codes in the electronic patient health record.
• Expertly searches the patient health record to find documentation justifying code assignment based on an expanded knowledge of the organization and structure of the patient record.
• Utilizes the facility computer system and software applications to correctly code, abstract, record, and transmit data to the national VA database.
• Corrects any identified data errors or inconsistencies in a timely manner to ensure acceptance in the national VA database within established timelines.
• Independently researches references to resolve any questionable code errors. Contacts supervisor as appropriate.
• Uses a variety of computer applications in day-to-day activities and duties, such as Outlook, Excel, and Word, competent use of the electric health record applications, and the encoder product suite.
• Orients and instructs new personnel and/or students from affiliated health information or medical record technology programs, at the direction of the supervisor, on unit operations, coding, abstracting, and use of an electronic health record.
• Works within a team environment; supports peers in meeting goals and deadlines; flexible and handles multiple tasks; works under pressure; and copes with frequently changing projects and deadlines.

Work Schedule

Monday - Friday; 8:00 am - 4:30 pm (Pacific Standard Time Zone)

Ad-hoc Telework

May be authorized depending on agency policy.

Virtual

This is a virtual position.

Functional Statement #

612-07110F

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives

Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (PCS)

Not Authorized

Qualifications

• Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.
• Basic Requirements:
• Citizenship: Citizen of the United States
• Experience and Education:
• One year of creditable experience that indicates knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, medical coding, and the structure and format of a health records.
• OR, 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 (e.g., courses in medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, medical coding, and introduction to health records);
• OR, Completion of an AHIMA approved coding program, or other intense coding training program of approximately one year or more that included courses in anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, basic ICD diagnostic/procedural, and basic CPT coding.
• The training program must have led to eligibility for coding certification/certification examination, and the sponsoring academic institution must have been accredited by a national U.S. Department of Education accreditor, or comparable international accrediting authority at the time the program was completed;
• OR, Experience/Education Combination: Equivalent combinations of creditable experience and education are qualifying for meeting the basic requirements.

Requirements

• Certification: Persons hired or reassigned to MRT (Coder) positions in the GS-0675 series in VHA must have either (1), or (2), or (3) below:
• Apprentice/Associate Level Certification through AHIMA or AAPC
• Mastery Level Certification through AHIMA or AAPC
• Clinical Documentation Improvement Certification through AHIMA or ACDIS.
• NOTE: Mastery level certification is required for all positions above the journey level; however, for clinical documentation improvement specialist assignments, a clinical documentation improvement certification may be substituted for a mastery level certification.
• Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service.
• English Language Proficiency: MRTs (Coder) must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f).

Benefits

• For the GS-8: Experience: One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade level GS-7 is listed below:
• Skill in applying current coding classifications to a variety of inpatient specialty care areas to accurately reflect service and care provided based on documentation in the health record.
• Ability to communicate with clinical staff for specific coding and documentation issues, such as recording diagnoses and procedures, the correct sequencing of diagnoses and/or procedures, and the relationship between health record documentation and code assignment.
• Ability to research and solve coding and documentation-related issues.
• Skill in reviewing and correcting system or processing errors and ensuring all assigned work is complete.
• Ability to abstract, assign, and sequence codes, including complication or comorbidity/major complication or comorbidity (CC/MCC), and POA indicators, to obtain correct MS-DRG.
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
• Ability to analyze the health record to identify all pertinent diagnoses and procedures for inpatient coding and to evaluate the adequacy of the documentation.
• Ability to accurately perform the full scope of inpatient coding, including inpatient discharges, surgical cases, diagnostic studies and procedures, and inpatient professional services.
• Skill in interpreting and adapting health information guidelines that are not completely applicable to the work or have gaps in specificity, and the ability to use judgment in completing assignments using incomplete or inadequate guidelines.
• Assignment: This is the journey level for this assignment.
• Inpatient MRTs (Coder) select and assign codes from current versions of ICD CM, PCS, and/or CPT and HCPCS classification systems for inpatient facility and/or professional services.
• Inpatient duties consist of the performance of a comprehensive review of documentation within the health record to assign ICD codes for diagnosis, complications/major complications, comorbid/major comorbid conditions, surgery, and procedures for accurate assignment of diagnosis related groups (DRG), and/or assigning CPT/HCPCS codes for inpatient professional services.
• They independently review and abstract clinical data from the record for documentation of diagnoses and procedures to ensure it is adequate and appropriate to support the assigned codes.
• They code all complicated and complex medical/specialty diseases processes, patient injuries, and all medical procedures in a wide range of inpatient settings and specialties.
• They directly consult with the clinical staff for clarification of conflicting, incomplete, or ambiguous clinical data in the health record.
• They must abstract, assign, and sequence codes into encoder software to obtain correct DRG, support medical necessity, resolve encoder edits, and ensure codes accurately reflect services rendered.
• They review provider health record documentation to ensure that it supports diagnostic and procedural codes assigned and is consistent with required medical coding nomenclature.
• They query clinical staff with documentation requirements to support the coding process.
• They also enter and correct information that has been rejected, when necessary.
• They correct any identified data errors or inconsistencies.
• They ensure audit findings have been corrected and refiled.
• They use various computer applications to abstract records, assign codes, and record and transmit data.

Company Description

For more information on this qualification standard, please visit VA Qualification Standards .

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-08. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-08.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service.