With all the external pressures on those in the medical industry today, coding doesn’t get much attention from the medical community. That should be a real concern as coding is the highest risk area for your organization or practice, and is a major focus of fraud and abuse initiatives. Proper and accurate coding is necessary to receive appropriate reimbursement, fulfill compliance obligations and protect you in the event of payor audits.

Here’s your chance to get a quick and thorough education with advice you can implement right away. Holly J. Louie, R.N., CHBME, PCS, is the corporate compliance officer for Practice Management Incorporated, a multi-specialty billing company located in Boise, Idaho. She is also an independent national healthcare consultant providing services for attorneys and multi-specialty clients with emphasis in documentation, coding and billing compliance, physician education and litigation support. Holly also specializes in conducting risk assessments and has extensive experience assisting attorneys in criminal and civil healthcare cases.

Holly’s presentation covers high-risk areas of coding, common audit findings and enforcement trends. She digs into the details and discusses provider-specific problem areas, shows real medical record examples from fraud and abuse cases, and highlights tricky issues such as what creates questions of veracity. And if you think relying on your electronic medical record (EMR) system insulates you from some coding risk areas, you’ll want to hear what Holly learned about EMRs and cloning from her time on a national CMS task force looking at EMR implementations. You’ll have a clear understanding of how to make coding an integral part of your compliance plan after you listen to the presentation.

Holly is a member of the Healthcare Billing and Management Association (HBMA) Board of Directors and serves as the chairwoman of the Ethics and Compliance Committee. She is the past chairwoman of the Coding Committee and the co-developer of the HBMA Operational Compliance Course. Holly is also a member of the Board of Governors of the American College of Medical Coding Specialists.

This presentation was originally given at the CPU Medical Management Systems 2008 Users Conference on March 14th, 2008 in San Diego, California.