This system guides the coder to select a more precise diagnosis as substantiated by the medical record documentation. Complex APG coding The new software also accurately handles complex APG coding for outpatient visits. Coders look at visit necessity by three categories a significant procedure or therapy, a medical visit or an ancillary test or procedure. Unlike the inpatient DRG based payment system, more than one payment code will be assigned to a patient visit. The grouper software examines which APGs are relevant and assigns a relative weight.
Payment depends on how the various groups of APGs occur together on the case.
The Cheyenne VA runs Clinical Coding Expert on a single personal computer that is in use almost the entire day. It's important to note the physician has the final say over the coding and that every change suggested by the coder has to receive the physician's approval. This application represents, in miniature, the dramatic changes that are taking place in the VA medical system. For example, the VA is developing what, when it is finished, will be the largest patient information system in the world that will track treatment of vets throughout the country in a single database. The ability to quickly and accurate code medical treatment is an important factor in generating the funding that is helping the VA system improve to meet veterans' needs of the 21st century.