Q&A with Dr. Tom
My compensation is not based on risk-coding. But I still get hassled about adding risk codes to my documentation. It takes a lot of extra time to deal with all the requests and I don't want to make my boss mad.
What should I do with all these requests?
Learn from the wisdom of Oprah
"If you're going to tattoo "Welcome" on your forehead, people are going to wipe their feet on you."
So ignore those requests.
Take good care of your patients and flush the coding requests.
Those requests are not about compliance, they're about more revenue---revenue that you're not sharing in.
So when you're sent requests for documentation adjustments, either from your employer or from your insurer--- just delete them.
And if your medical director brings it up at your next review, nod politely and keep on with the ignoring.
Remember, your medical director is not your friend or colleague---she is an agent of your employer tasked with keeping your revenue up and your expenses down.
If they keep calling you on your efforts to control your time, identify to them what tasks you aren't doing and why you aren't doing it.
If the response is "this is no different than asking a surgeon to use a less expensive instrument. It's what we all have to do to keep the revenue flowing," then call them on it for the dishonest compliance tactic that it is.
The only way you're going to earn a reasonable return on your education, to not be treated like a cost center, is to be compensated with a portion of your Medicare Advantage revenue.
If you do it for free, they're not going to offer to pay you.
If you refuse, they may just make a compensation change.
But in the end, you just may need to find a new employer---one who doesn't see you as an expense but rather as a center of exceptional value for them and your patients.
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