Pediatric Coding Alert

You can make medical records accurate even after the visit, as long as the practitioner heeds essential compliance facts.With the plethora of insurance auditors and government entities poring over more and more of your pediatric records, it may be time to consider valuable protection: documentation corrections and additions. But overuse of late entries may do more harm than good.This is a topic of greater concern given the number of entities that are now looking at medical claims, warns consultant Judy Adams in Chapel Hill, N.C."Record tampering undermines a clinician's credibility in the event of litigation," warns a guidebook on medical documentation by the University of North Texas. "It is important not to jeopardize the integrity of a patient's medical record by using a questionable correction method."Rumor: Some medical office staff believe they are not allowed to make corrections to a medical record if someone else (i.e., a supervisor) asks them [...]