Navigate provider interactions with ease. Realizing you need clarification from a provider is proof that you’re a responsible and resourceful medical coder or biller. Find out what you can do to navigate querying a provider with confident, concise communication — and reap the benefits with more clean claims. “If you can establish a relationship with your provider, you’ve done 75 percent of the work in coding and querying,” Emily Schmidt Barnette, CPC, CPC-P, CDEO, CPB, CPMA, CRC, CPC-I, said during the 2023 HEALTHCON presentation, “Communicating with Providers.” Consider These 5 Reasons to Query You may need to query your provider for any of the reasons below: Know How to Present a Query Queries may be written or verbal and generated in one or more of the following ways: “The technique of writing a query is critical in ensuring clear and precise communication to a provider. Make sure that the question you are asking makes sense with the information you are providing as support. I like to use ‘specify and clarify’ in my queries, but any language will work provided the doctor understands the query,” says Vida Rothstein, RHIT, CCS, AAPC inpatient auditor for Audit Service Group in South Bend, Indiana. All queries should then follow the same format whether they are written, emailed, or delivered over the phone, stressed Schmidt Barnette. They should: “It’s important to avoid leading the provider with your language. “You want to avoid saying things like, ‘Please document if you agree that the patient has _________,’ and instead ask questions that will help you narrow down the correct coding,” Schmidt Barnette suggested. You should ask more specific questions like, “Based on your clinical judgment, can you provide a diagnosis that represents the below listed indicators?” to get to the correct diagnosis. It’s essential to use compliant query templates for written and emailed queries, as Schmidt Barnette emphasized during the presentation. This ensures consistency and accuracy in documentation across the entire office. Query Like This Suppose you need to query a provider regarding a recent procedure. Here are a few examples of questions you might want to ask: In short, “educating the provider that there are certain circumstances and certain terminologies helps reduce what I call physician query fatigue,” Rothstein says. Aim for Mutual Respect It’s important to keep in mind that tone is so much of communication. “Always be respectful of their time and highlight the mutual benefits of coding correctly … and don’t lecture. Be personable, don’t be a coder, don’t be a robot who just spits out coding guidelines, it just makes the whole thing easier,” Schmidt Barnette said. She reminded her audience that both the coder and the practitioner bring different skill sets to the table that are mutually dependent upon each other and stressed the importance of encouraging teamwork. Being open to listening, asking meaningful questions, and understanding the value of each other’s time is also key to successfully querying the practitioner.