Paying For PD 6 August 1998
Along with Medicare, HMOs, and pressure to restrain costs of
diagnosis and treatment, there has evolved a profession called
coding, done by people having limited medical knowledge but who
are highly trained to assign patients or procedures to
standardized categories for the purpose, among others, of cost
control. Such assignment may be critical in deciding who should
pay for a given procedure and consequently, whether the patient
can afford it.
Thanks to a tip from listmember Andy Conovaloff, I corresponded
briefly with Paul Shoemaker, president of MetriCor, a company
devoted to the profession of medical coding. Mr. Shoemaker
kindly furnished a glimpse of that fascinating world, via the
following websites:
http://www.metricor.com
http://www.metricor.com/PPS.html and
http://www.metricor.com/parkin.html
I'd like to know if anyone here is familiar with this field of
medical administration, and can tell us more about it. Cheers,
Joe
--
J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694
3527 Cody Road
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-5013
