Resolved AI and the future of medical coding/billing

[EhraF_78138]

Something that has been in the back of my mind lately with the growing capabilities and user accessibility of AI is how this technology may be intergrated into the field of medical coding and billing. Do we think there will be a place for such technology to exist in this arena, or is the human interaction irreplaceable? Just a fun thought. Personally, I can see AI becoming a helpful tool to medical coding/billing but I don't think it will become a replacement for this type of work by any means.

 

[Lori]

 

[PaulD_81673]

I would imagine that A.I. will never, ever be able to completely replace human coders...unless we all literally become computers ourselves. The technology itself to look up codes more efficiently might improve, sure. There's already tech on the market that does that (or at least attempts to do that), but it still needs human input to rationally parse out the data.

 

[Alicia]

AI is here to stay. It will adapt and become better however I agree with Paul it can not take over completely as there is needed oversight. We are already seeing the role of the coder becoming more of an auditor. The providers pick the codes in the EMR system already. We follow behind and clean up. I do a lot of provider education on the code set. They don't want to code but were told that if they purchase "this" EMR it will do the coding for them. But the guidelines are not included. Plus, they go in and change the code descriptions which make a real mess of things.

AI will adapt and our role will change again in the future. I have already seen it happen. But that is nothing new. Coders are used to change. We adapt with the times.