Have you ever wondered how your insurance company receives the information from your visit? This process starts with in our Health Information Management (HIM) department. Our HIM department starts the process by reviewing each and every visit from an inpatient stay to a simple lab test to ensure your documentation is complete and accurate as well as verify the services that were performed. Verifying accurate documentation is a must to not only ensure proper reimbursement from your insurance company but most importantly to ensure you can receive quality care during future visits.
Medical coders then pick from over 70,000 procedure codes and over 69,000 diagnosis codes to place on a claim to be sent to the insurance company. These codes actively tell the story of your visit. For example, if you cut your finger while slicing tomatoes in your kitchen and present to the emergency room with a 2cm cut to your right index finger and need stitches, the way the insurance company receives that information is in a combination of letters and numbers. For this scenario the insurance company would see this visit as S61.210A for the laceration, W26.0XXA for the contact with a knife, Y92.000 to specify the accident occurred in the kitchen, and 12001 for the laceration repair.
Medical record releases are also handled by the HIM department along with creating birth certificates and handling other important information that are collected during a patient’s stay. The Health Information Management department does all of this while still being vigilant in protecting patients’ privacy and security and ensuring that all information remains accurate. If a patient has a need for a copy or question about their medical records they can reach the Health Information Management department at 507-831-2400 and we will get you in contact with those that are best suited to help.
By Ashley Haskin, CCS, HIM Lead