A Coder’s Guide to Health Care Reform

Quick way to show your practice you’re prepared for the unknowns ahead.

If anyone should be able to understand the complicated health care reform debate raging in Washington, it should be us coders and billers, right? After all, we’re closest to what’s at the center of the debate: dollars and cents.

So, if you’re like me, you’ve been wading through the long newspaper articles about health reform because there are lots of people at work who expect you to understand it. And if you’re like me, you quickly get overwhelmed and wish you were reading Cathy instead.

Help is here — a quick n’ easy health reform “fake book” from Back of the Napkin author Dan Roam and Tony Jones, MD. Simple slides and drawings outline health reform possibilities, and how each one will affect providers, patients and insurers.

Tip: We coders and billers can quickly zip through the first few slides that explain “health care is a business.” Yeah. We know.

Things get more interesting when Roam and Jones sketch out which proposals in Congress have a chance of passing, and which are just hype. Juicy tidbit: They point out that “private insurers had a remarkable profitable 2008. (Yes, in the recession.)”

So become a health care reform guru, wow your boss, and get promoted. Check out the ‘Back of the Napkin Guide to Health Care Reform’ here. (And thanks to attorney Bob Coffield’s blog for the lead.)

Whatever happens, health care will always need certified coders. Train for your CPC® exam here.

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