Towards the end of December 2019, the world woke up to a deadly virus called Coronavirus (COVID-19). The virus first identified in Wuhan, China has been declared a pandemic meaning it is prevalent over the whole world. With the number of cases and deaths rising, the world is battling hard to control its spread and severity. All the medical coding professionals must get well-versed with this new condition which is being more dreadful for people with an underlying medical condition.

Understanding Coronavirus:

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), coronavirus is a virus from the large family of viruses that cause various illnesses that could range from the common cold to severe ailments like MERS and SARS. This virus is transmitted between animals and people. The common symptoms of COVID-19 include respiratory issues, fever, cough, shortness of breath and trouble in breathing. When the case is severe, it may lead to pneumonia and other serious health issues depending on the general health condition of the infected person.

Coding Coronavirus Patient Encounter:

The American Medical Association has announced a new Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code to streamline COVID-19 testing offered by various healthcare providers like hospitals, health systems and laboratories. This code has come into effect from 13th March 2020 to be used as the industry standard for reporting of tests for novel corona virus across the healthcare facilities in the nation. All the people in medical coding jobs must update themselves with this new code and the descriptor.

• Long Code Descriptor:

87635 – Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19]), amplified probe technique.

• Medium Code Descriptor:

87635 – IADNA SARS-COV-2 COVID-19 AMPLIFIED PROBE TQ

• Short Code Descriptor:

87635 – SARS-COV-2 COVID-19 AMP PRB

It is agreed by all that diagnostic testing plays a crucial role in managing and controlling the outbreak of deadly coronavirus that’s affecting thousands of people across the world. Diagnosing accurately and increasing the testing capacity is the need of the hour per the medical experts. The new Category I CPT code created and approved by the CPT Editorial Panel will be critical in identifying and approaching the outbreak of the virus with accurate data which can be analyzed in a better manner.

Also, the professionals in medical coding jobs should be aware that CMS has created two new HCPCS codes for the testing of the novel coronavirus. The two new HCPCS codes are –

• U0001 for SARS-COV-2 diagnostic tests performed specifically for CDC testing laboratories.
• U0002 for non-CDC lab tests.

Medical coding and medical billing professionals should check with their local payers to understand their specific reporting guidelines for the new CPT code. All the medical coding companies and healthcare providers should encourage their employees to update their knowledge on the new code and apply it accurately.

Electronic health records (EHRs) that are the digital version of paper charts of healthcare providers play a critical role in maintaining the health records of patients. The EHRs provide real-time and patient-centric records that are easily accessible by the authorized people who include physicians, healthcare staff, and the patients. Since electronic health records have comprehensive information about a patient’s health history collected from various healthcare providers whom the patient approached, they give a complete view of the patient’s health status and help the physicians make accurate and informed decisions with regard to investigations and treatment.

In the hard times, people are facing these days due to coronavirus disease, healthcare providers are under pressure to provide quality healthcare, and for this, it becomes essential to share data effectively. For this, it is necessary for healthcare providers to adapt to the changing needs of patient care. Here, the EHR systems play a crucial role in sharing accurate data in real-time.

With a sudden rise in the demand for hospital care and capacity, many healthcare providers are facing challenges in quickly arranging hospital management software at various alternative care locations set up to meet the increased healthcare requirements. It is observed that due to the various rules and regulations in place for setting up EHR systems and interoperability issues between different vendor-specific systems, healthcare facilities are encountered with hindrances in sharing critical medical information of patients.

To tackle these issues and use EHRs effectively, healthcare facilities should build and increase department units in the software, broaden Wi-Fi facilities, arrange additional hardware as required, arrange printers and other peripheral as necessary, and finally ensure that all these are working fine. For all these tasks, healthcare facilities need to have robust IT teams that can pull off their responsibilities within stringent deadlines and under pressure.

Healthcare facilities are hiring new staff to meet the demand created by the pandemic and this requires that the EHR systems are updated with the details of new employees who can access them and change the roles of other authorized people if needed. The present pandemic has created a need for the EHRs to work and provide results as intended and it is more so important now than ever before.

The coronavirus pandemic has not only increased the need for healthcare at facilities but also created a surge in the use of telehealth. Patients who are dealing with numerous ailments have to be cared for and it is in the best interest of both the patients and the facilities to treat them remotely to avoid crowding at facilities and reduce the risk of spreading the virus by staying back home. Telehealth has become a key method to address the health concerns of many people from a distance. In this scenario, it becomes vital for healthcare facilities to integrate telehealth with EHRs to provide seamless quality care.

For all those healthcare facilities that have not adopted EHRs and those that do not have capabilities to tackle this situation effectively with EHRs, this is the time to build up their EHR systems and ensure that they are well integrated with telehealth as well.

The sudden outbreak of the pandemic called Coronavirus has presented a situation that nobody has anticipated ever. Apart from the health concerns that COVID-19 has brought, a whole range of economic concerns has sprung up. One of the major concerns for all in the healthcare documentation sector is how the industry is ensuring business continuity in these testing times. The present situation is far different from other natural disaster or calamity situations when a particular geographical area is affected and people in other areas are not affected. In such situations, if a particular area is affected, businesses have an option to continue to operate from other locations. However, in this situation when the whole world is affected by the pandemic, businesses are facing the tough challenges of business continuity and business growth.

A blessing that can be counted in this situation is the prediction that the global medical transcription market has the potential to grow by around sixteen billion US dollars during the period of 2020-2024. Here are a couple of the factors that are driving the healthcare documentation growth:

• The medical transcription market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 5% during the period of 2020-2024 which is an optimistic sign for the people in healthcare documentation jobs.
• The healthcare sector is using data analytics to improve efficiency and increase revenue and for this, it relies on accurate data that needs to be given by the healthcare documentation specialists.

Although the COVID-19 crisis has impacted numerous patients and healthcare providers and people are delaying their elective surgeries, it is not a permanent thing. The first thing in this scenario is that healthcare documentation companies that deal with the emergency care services will have a good scope of work because of the sudden surge of COVID-19 patients.   The second thing in this scenario is about the healthcare providers who offer surgical services and that too, elective surgeries. Let us first understand what elective surgery is.

Elective surgery:

Elective surgery or elective procedure is a surgery that is planned and does not involve a medical emergency. Elective surgery is a procedure that is required to be performed but need not be done immediately.  Elective surgeries are scheduled in such a manner that they suit the timings of the patient, surgeon, and hospital.  Most of the surgeries performed for medical reasons are elective and they include hip replacements, ligament repairs, cataract extraction, etc. Cosmetic surgeries also fall into the category of elective surgeries.

What is in store?

Numerous leading healthcare organizations and ambulatory surgery centers are postponing the elective surgeries so as to conserve resources to tackle the COVID-19 crisis effectively. However, this is a temporary situation and surgeries would be performed normally when the situation gets controlled. Hence, the people in healthcare documentation jobs specializing in elective surgical procedures need not get anxious. They will resume normal work as and when the situation gets to normalcy.

The healthcare industry is one of those industries that are recession-free. Irrespective of economic conditions, people tend to face healthcare issues that need either immediate or elective procedures/ services. Let’s be optimistic that the world gets through this crisis situation strongly and all economies get to normalcy as early as possible.