# Physician to billing/coding staff ratio?



## KRYSTAL8 (Aug 21, 2008)

I was wondering if anyone knows how I can determine the "normal" or "avarage" physician to coding staff ratio. I currently work for a surgical group that has 6 general surgery/trauma surgery physicians, along with 3 physician assistants. There are only 2 billing/coding staff for 9 providers. I am trying to find the nation avarage for the appropriate ratio. Thanks for the help.


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## rjconnell (Aug 22, 2008)

I really think you will have tough time finding a common answer on this one.  It completely depends on the specialty and the volume of the practice. I currently code for 5 critical care surgeons. Generally there are 2 Drs on 24/7. My co-worker codes for the other 15 specialty surgeons in our office, oncologist, transplant for kidney, liver and pancreas, bariatric, etc. Our workload is close to the same and at times mine is actually higher.  When I coded straight E&Ms for Internal Medicine I had a ton of Drs.


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## mmorningstarcpc (Aug 22, 2008)

I have always heard 3 to 3.5 staff members per physician.  I guess you could figure about half of that for administrative staff, and about half of that for coding and billing.  Its a thought!


Machelle
CPC, CPC-H, CPC-E/M


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## LGillstrom (Aug 22, 2008)

Total Office Staff: 12
Total Coders: 2

Total MD (Anesthesiologists) Providers: 49
Total Non-MD Providers (CRNA): 115

This sounds like a lot, but they work in teams, so its not as bad as it looks.  When I did General Medicine/Family Practice and Multi-Specialty, we had two coders for every 7-9 MD's.


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## limberly (Mar 11, 2015)

So does anyone think its odd that I work for a residency, with an average of 5 clinics, anywhere from 35-40 physicians seeing pt.'s per day, with only 3 coders....Hmmm, I think we have a problem here.


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