3M™ CodeAssist™ System

Protecting the physician’s narrative and translating the power of clinical language into quality coding and appropriate reimbursement are complex challenges. The 3M CodeAssist System’s success and engine accuracy are directly proportional to the 3M community of clients. 3M combines expert rules with statistical, data-driven methodologies borne out of NLP learning techniques. By leveraging the community’s user expertise, 3M establishes a linguistic foundation across the full spectrum of medical specialties. It is Metcalfe’s Law at work: the value of the 3M NLP engine for all clients grows as the community expands.

3M CodeAssist can provide organizations with dramatic productivity improvements. The technology quickly eliminates backlogs and any associated overtime, as well as piles of paper, courier fees, manual sorting, data entry errors and costly document storage.

Automated, front-end integrity checks help coders resolve issues before codes enter the billing system, where corrections or denial management become time-consuming and cost-prohibitive. Clients can experience substantial savings through reductions in turnaround time, denials and A/R days. Coding overtime and backlogs can become a thing of the past.

Clients can streamline their entire coding, billing and management operations without the hassle of installing and managing a new computer system. Clients simply log into the web-based application and can instantly code or review clinical documents. 3M CodeAssist offers valuable insight into an organization’s processes with real-time dashboards to show what’s happening throughout a department and quickly present individual coder productivity results.

Because productivity is closely monitored, coding managers can observe the work of remote coders as easily as they monitor office-based staff. This capability gives clients the opportunity to hire top talent, regardless of geographic location. Even with coders in multiple locations, 3M CodeAssist’s web-based system is highly secure—patient data is never stored on a computer’s local hard drive.

3M’s NLP engine was built for compliance based on established national coding guidelines, including the ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting, AMA’s CPT® Assistant (official coding advice published quarterly by the American Medical Association), and more than a dozen other related, payer and specialty publications.

3M CodeAssist evaluates the complete record so all procedures are coded. The system easily accounts for nuances in physician language, such as negation, context and time references, while also identifying patterns of deficient documentation in medical dictation. As a result, clients can offer valuable feedback to physicians about documentation habits, further improving compliance.

3M CodeAssist codes medical records based solely on the language and evidence contained in a report. The NLP engine automatically checks every report for evidence to assign codes. It is continually updated so that no matter when a record is processed, codes are appropriate based on date of service. The engine codes the same record the same way, removing the natural variability that can be introduced by human coders.

3M constructed its application around the ability to audit, following OIG guidelines and other best practices. One-of-a-kind prospective auditing allows clients to closely monitor coder accuracy by auditing reports before they go to billing. Records that meet a client’s audit criteria are automatically moved to a special queue upon approval by coders for auditing. The records then go to billing once confirmed or adjusted. 3M CodeAssist codes medical records based solely on the language, and evidence-integrated retrospective auditing helps clients perform traditional audits of reports based on specific parameters.

3M also provides a powerful search capability within 3M CodeAssist. With the Power Search functionality, no additional expertise is needed, and users can search medical records by ICD or CPT® code or by payer whenever they need to troubleshoot data issues. For example, with the power to search up to 100,000 medical records and the related metadata in just seconds, coding managers can quickly identify downcoding and inefficient or incomplete phrasing entered by clinicians. This automated search functionality can help eliminate what is usually a time-consuming, manual process or the need to request a custom report. The result is improved data transparency and portability.

With the 3M CodeAssist System, clients also benefit from the assistance of a dedicated team of coding and service professionals before, during and after implementation. Each client has a dedicated client engagement executive and coding analyst who serve as the main 3M contact and client advocate, incorporating best practices and driving ROI.