Hill, Helene, and Matthew Hill. “The ethics of coding: are we committing fraud?.” JAAPA: Official Journal Of The American Academy Of Physician Assistants 24, no. 10 (October 2011): 67-68.
Abstract: A young PA had recently begun working in a busy emergency department, and although he was handling the medical aspect well, he was continuing to get flagged on documentation reports. This PA reviewed the reports and noticed that his documentation had cost his employer about $20,000 in lost charges that year. He began to sense pressure from his employer that if he did not improve his documentation, he might lose his job. One day while discussing a patient’s case with his attending, she mentioned to him that because this patient had been admitted to the hospital, more in‐depth documentation would be required in the chart. She said he would need to go back into the chart and “beef it up.” As the PA turned back to his computer, he thought, “Well, I didn’t exactly look inside this patient’s ears as she had come in for a diabetic foot ulcer. What do I document?”
