Medical Coding and Healthcare Delivery Systems: Research Analysis

This assignment delves into the critical role of medical coding within healthcare delivery systems. It highlights how coding directly impacts data quality, which is essential for effective reimbursement processes and overall healthcare performance. The assignment references an article published within the last three years to explore the challenges and complexities associated with medical coding, including potential errors and their consequences. The coding process itself is examined, emphasizing its technical nature and the need for high standards to ensure accurate data. The assignment connects the findings to the concepts covered in the course textbook, illustrating the importance of coding in healthcare finance and management. The assignment emphasizes that accurate and efficient coding is vital to optimize healthcare delivery systems.

Running head: HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM: MEDICAL CODING 1
Healthcare Delivery System: Medical Coding
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM: MEDICAL CODING 2
Healthcare Delivery System: Medical Coding
In the US, the performance of health care delivery systems has fallen short of
expectations. Health care delivery is costly and dissatisfies many individuals. As such, the article
by Kelsey and her colleagues highlights the barriers to the quality of data that result from the
process of coding health information as one of the performance measures (Kelsey, Tang, &
Hude, 2017).
Medical coding entails the transformation of medical data into code values for universal
recognition and interpretation among other uses. The article stresses that it is difficult to have a
high performing health care delivery system without an efficient coding system in place. Medical
coding results in rich information that can be used for treatment purposes and medical research.
Additionally, given that medical reimbursement processes are overwhelming, coding is a great
addition in the transfer of large amounts of information that can justify reimbursement (Louis,
2015, p. 58).
Given the value of coding in health care delivery systems, there is a need to ensure that
coded data are of high quality. As a process, coding is highly complex. Throughout the coding
process, there are a couple of procedural instances that are likely to influence the quality of data.
They are errors in documentation, chart organization, interpretation variability, quotas, and
expectations. The mistakes have far-reaching consequences in the quality of data and therefore
undermining the quality of health care delivery systems (Kelsey, Tang, & Hude, 2017).
To finalize, as highlighted above, the findings from the article are relatable with the
concept of medical coding, which forms a foundation for reimbursement (Louis, 2015, p. 57). In
that light, given that the application of codes is both complicated and technical, coders need to

HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM: MEDICAL CODING 3
raise their standards since sound coding has the potential to boost the performance of health care
systems.

HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM: MEDICAL CODING 4
References
Louis, G. C. (2015). Healthcare Insurance and Reimbursement Methodologies. In Healthcare
Finance: An Introduction to Accounting and Financial Management (6th ed., pp. 57-58).
Health Administration Press.
Lucyk, K., Tang, K., & Hude, Q. (2017). Barriers to data quality resulting from the process of
coding health information to administrative data: a qualitative study. BMC Health
Services Research. doi:10.1186