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Role Description

Lead MRTs (Coder) are skilled in classifying medical data from patient health records in the hospital setting, and/or physician-based settings, such as physician offices, group practices, multi-specialty clinics, and specialty centers. These coding practitioners analyze and abstract patients' health records and assign alpha-numeric codes for each diagnosis and procedure. To perform this task, they must possess expertise in International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

• Assigns codes to documented patient care encounters (inpatient and/or outpatient) covering the full range of health care services provided by the VAMC.
• Selects and assigns codes from the current version of several coding systems including ICD, CPT, and/or HCPCS.
• Adheres to accepted coding practices, guidelines, and conventions to ensure ethical, accurate, and complete coding.
• Monitors ever-changing regulatory and policy requirements affecting coded information.
• Establishes workflow or job specialization to assure timely accomplishment of the assigned workload.
• Analyzes and recommends improvements in documentation systems used to provide patient care.
• Serves as work leader, distributing and balancing workload among employees.
• Identifies training needs of individuals based on productivity and accuracy reports.
• Trains team members in the accomplishment of tasks or projects.
• Resolves simple informal complaints of employees and refers more serious matters to the supervisor.
• Participates in the orientation of House Staff from affiliated medical schools and students/interns as needed.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• United States Citizenship.
• English Language Proficiency.
• One year of creditable experience that indicates knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, medical coding, and the structure and format of health records.
• An associate 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.
• Completion of an AHIMA approved coding program or other intense coding training program.
• Equivalent combinations of creditable experience and education are qualifying for meeting the basic requirements.
• Certification through AHIMA or AAPC.

Requirements

• Mastery level certification required for GS-9 level.
• Ability to work with a team to provide technical guidance and coordinate activities.
• Advanced knowledge of current coding classification systems.
• Ability to effectively communicate, both orally and in writing.
• Knowledge of training methods and ability to provide training to new coding staff.
• Ability to collect and analyze data and present results.
• Leadership skills, including interpersonal relations and conflict resolution.

Benefits

• 37-50 days of annual paid time off (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays).
• Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave after 12 months of employment.
• Childcare subsidy for eligible employees after 60 days of employment.
• Traditional federal pension and federal 401K with up to 5% contributions by VA.
• Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care insurance options.

Physical Requirements

The work is primarily sedentary but requires some walking, sitting, standing, reaching, bending, and lifting of medical coding books, folders, worksheets, supplies, government furnished laptop equipment, and laptop accessories.