Lead Health Information Technician

Summary

The Dayton VAMC is recruiting for a Lead Medical Records Coder. Lead MRTs Coder must be able to perform all duties of a MRT Coder. Lead MRTs (Coder) review coding and assist MRTs Coder in ensuring timeliness and improving coding accuracy; provide coding guidance to various levels of staff to promote consistency in practice and compliance with coding rules and regulations; initiate - prepare - and maintain various reports - and analyze data; and may also coordinate - assign - and monitor workflow.

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy
• Experience and Education: Experience
• One year of creditable experience that indicates knowledge of medical terminology - anatomy - physiology - pathophysiology - medical coding - and the structure and format of a health records
• OR - Education
• An associate's degree from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education with a major field of study in health information technology/health information management - or a related degree with a minimum of 12 semester hours in health information technology/health information management (e.g. - courses in medical terminology - anatomy and physiology - medical coding - and introduction to health records)
• OR - Completion of an AHIMA approved coding program - or other intense coding training program of approximately one year or more that included courses in anatomy and physiology - medical terminology - basic ICD diagnostic/procedural - and basic CPT coding
• The training program must have led to eligibility for coding certification/certification examination - and the sponsoring academic institution must have been accredited by a national U.S. Department of Education accreditor - or comparable international accrediting authority at the time the program was completed
• OR - Experience/Education Combination
• Equivalent combinations of creditable experience and education are qualifying for meeting the basic requirements
• The following educational/training substitutions are appropriate for combining education and creditable experience: (a) Six months of creditable experience that indicates knowledge of medical terminology - general understanding of medical coding and the health record - and one year above high school - with a minimum of 6 semester hours of health information technology courses
• (b) Successful completion of a course for medical technicians - hospital corpsmen - medical service specialists - or hospital training obtained in a training program given by the Armed Forces or the U.S. Maritime Service - under close medical and professional supervision - may be substituted on a month-for-month basis for up to six months of experience provided the training program included courses in anatomy - physiology - and health record techniques and procedures
• Also - requires six additional months of creditable experience that is paid or non-paid employment equivalent to a MRT (Coder)
• Certification
• Persons hired or reassigned to MRT (Coder) positions in the GS-0675 series in VHA must have: Mastery Level Certification through AHIMA or AAPC
• May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria)
• Grade Determinations: Lead Medical Records Technician (Coder) - GS-9 (a) Lead coder assignments can be established for any of the coder subspecialties (outpatient - inpatient - outpatient and inpatient combined)
• The subspecialty will be reflected in the title - e.g. - Lead MRT (Coder-Outpatient)
• (b) Experience
• One year of creditable experience equivalent to the journey grade level MRT (Coder)
• (c) Certification
• Employees at this level must have a mastery level certification
• (d) Assignment
• For all assignments above the journey level - the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope - complexity (difficulty) - range of variety - and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time
• Lead MRTs (Coder) must be able to perform all duties of