Wiki Future of coding - information sources

[dave789]

Can anyone recommend a good source of information or two for coding employment trends and outlooks? I've found *some* information online, but little/no coverage of some important topics:

For example, I've found nothing so far regarding the likely impacts on coding of value-based care and reimbursement. I've also found no real forecasts of how many coders will be employed by big rev cycle firms versus hospitals a few years from now, if there is expected consolidation to just a few big firms doing all rev work at some point (small houses being bought up), etc.

I'm new to the field and very eager to plot my course smartly, so any thoughts are much appreciated!
Thank you,
Dave

 

[Pam Warren]

Good questions. I'd love to find the crystal ball that will tell me that.

We posed this very same question to our Strategic Planning director. He felt that using coders to obtain statistics and reporting were going to be critical for supporting value based organizations, and it was his thought that coders absolutely would be abstracting the majority of this information. He also encouraged us to become more technology savvy, as coding is moving more towards automation from a workflow perspective. Coders are needed for system analysis and template building within revenue software.

If I were starting over in this career, I'd look at either obtaining an IT education, or additional clinical education (nursing) in conjunction with ongoing coding education. A high school education and/or career school is not going to be sufficient in 10 years if you want to work for a large organization (which is where the $$ is, and you want to be able to support yourself).