Category Archives: Uncategorized

Renewed Concerns About Medical Privacy

Farai Chideya recently renewed the issue of data collection and medical privacy in her article “Medical Privacy Under Threat in the Age of Big Data,” for First Look Media’s The Intercept. Chideya’s article raised several issues that have hitherto not …

Major Healthcare Mergers

This week Anthem (until recently known as WellPoint), the second-largest health insurance company in the United States, announced it had reached a buyout deal with the nation’s fifth largest health insurance company Cigna. Once joined the new company will provide …

Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set – UHDDS

Implemented in 1974, the Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set (UHDDS) was originally an initiative by the predecessor of today’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The creation of the UHDDS is indirectly …

Diagnosis-Related Group – DRG

While this term might throw new medical billing and coding professionals, understanding diagnosis-related groups – DRGs – is not complicated. Essentially a DRG is just a way of categorizing different medical codes. Billing and coding professionals deal with potentially tens …

3M Health Information Systems

Founded by five businessmen in Minnesota in 1902, today 3M employs around 88,000 and last year generated $30 billion. The company initially started out in mineral mining – Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing – and then diversified into mining products. After …

Medical Billing and Coding Career Analysis

The following is a state-by-state report about the different job titles and job qualification requirements that are common in the medical billing and coding field throughout the country. The five states covered here employ the largest amounts of medical billing …

Gearing up for the ICD-10 Transition

Approximately a year and a half ago, Medical Billing Coding World reported the Coming of the ICD-10. Having been delayed for two years since its original scheduled launch date, as of now all indications are that it will roll out …

Code-a-Palooza

While this year’s Code-a-Palooza didn’t feature live music and outhouses as far as the eye could see, it did involve plenty of professionals who were placed somewhere along the spectrum between Generation X and the Millennials. Code-a-Palooza is an annual …

Why Chinese Hackers Want Medical Billing and Coding Data

Last week the FBI announced it was investigating a hack attack on the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management. Anonymous government officials were already pointing their finger at China as the details emerged, accusing its government of espionage against the …