# Day in the life of a medical coding auditor?



## apache069 (Feb 3, 2012)

Hello,

I have an opportunity to seek a Medical Coding Auditing position. I already have a CPC and am in my last 2 quarters of an associate degree program to obtain my RHIT. I currently am a Coding Specialist for a 120 physician multi specialty physician group practice and I absolutely love coding. I have done physician based coding for over 3 years now. My other interest are in health privacy and security and I thought maybe stepping out into a coding auditor role would allow me to be able to take part in both my interests of coding and security. I have read several descriptions online of what a coding auditor does but I wanted to actually be able to ask someone who is actually doing it what is is like and what it encompasses. What exactly does a medical coding auditor do day to day? I really don't want to loose my coding skills that I have developed over these 3+ years but being a medical auditor sounds like it may just be my cup of tea. Any details you can give me of your day to day job would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.


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## mcandia (Feb 4, 2012)

I am a medical auditor in an academic setting (University - College of Medicine). You will utilize your analytical & interpersonal skills on a daily basis.

As an auditor you will be doing a lot of research and acting as an educator to physicians, mid levels and staff in the areas of billing, coding and documentation.

You should not lose your coding skills as you will actually be monitoring and evaluating others and will be responsible for making recommendations on how to improve the quality of documentation.

You will be investigating potential areas of concern identified by others i.e. coding staff, physicians, revenue cycle operations etc. and implementing corrective action plans.

You will be dealing with statistics, spreadsheets and the reporting of data to various committees.

You may be asked to develop educational material for training purposes; power point presentations, C.U.R.E. notes, auditing tools etc.

Education & training are an important part of medical auditing and may involve one on one provider training or a large group depending on the practice size.

If a hot line is in place you would trouble shoot any questions or anonymous reports relative to compliance related issues.

Maria A. Candia CPC, CPC-H, CPCO, CPMA, CEMC


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## apache069 (Feb 5, 2012)

Thanks so much Maria. I really appreciate your response


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## Julie Davis (Feb 8, 2012)

I manage a team of auditors and believe me they use their coding skills every single day. If there is anything that I can answer for you, let me know, I'm happy to help.


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## apache069 (Feb 9, 2012)

Julie Davis said:


> I manage a team of auditors and believe me they use their coding skills every single day. If there is anything that I can answer for you, let me know, I'm happy to help.



Thanks Julie. Well, it looks like I am going to be interviewing for this coding auditor position next week. Since this will be new to me as far being a formal coding auditor. What questions should I ask in my interview as related to the day to day responsibilities of a coding auditor?
Do your auditors have goals/etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I think I am really suited for this position but don't want to go into it blindly. Thanks for all your help


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