Revenue Cycle Coder Lead-Inpatient Coding

As our Lead Inpatient Coder, you will be a cornerstone of our medical coding department, providing essential leadership and strategic direction for our inpatient coding team. You will be instrumental in driving coding accuracy, ensuring regulatory compliance, and optimizing revenue cycle performance for complex medical cases, making a direct impact on our healthcare data integrity and financial health.

Every day you will provide expert technical guidance, conduct comprehensive quality oversight, and perform complex coding audits. You will actively collaborate with clinical and revenue cycle teams to enhance documentation and streamline processes. A significant part of your role involves mentoring, training, and fostering the professional growth of coding staff, ensuring adherence to the highest coding standards and best practices.

To be successful in this role, you will possess advanced inpatient coding credentials (e.g., CCS, RHIA, RHIT), extensive experience with DRG methodologies, and a deep understanding of official coding guidelines. You must demonstrate exceptional leadership, communication, and analytical skills, with a passion for quality improvement and team development in health information management (HIM).

• Lead and mentor a team of inpatient coders, serving as the primary point of contact for guidance, support, and complex issue resolution.
• Apply expert-level coding knowledge to accurately assign and validate ICD-10-CM/PCS codes and MS-DRGs for complex inpatient cases.
• Ensure coding quality and compliance through routine reviews, identification of trends, and support of internal and external audit activities.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with CDI, Quality, Case Management, and Revenue Integrity teams to resolve documentation and coding discrepancies.
• Drive continuous improvement by providing one-on-one feedback, developing educational materials, and promoting best practices among coders.
• Contribute to operational efficiency by tracking productivity, reporting quality trends, and supporting process optimization initiatives.

Required:

RHIT or RHIA certification.
Associate's degree in health information management or related field.
3-5 years of inpatient facility coding experience in an acute-care hospital setting.
Advanced knowledge of ICD-10-CM/PCS, MS-DRGs, UHDDS, and Official Coding Guidelines.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Proficiency with encoder and EMR systems.
Ability to provide constructive feedback and coach peers effectively.

Preferred:

CCS certification.
Bachelor's degree.
Prior experience as a lead, mentor, trainer, or auditor.
Experience with complex surgical cases and high-acuity medical records.
Prior inpatient coding audit or CDI collaboration experience.
Experience supporting remote or vendor-based coding teams.
Familiarity with productivity standards, DNFC management, and revenue cycle metrics.

Inspired by faith. Driven by innovation. Powered by humankindness. CommonSpirit Health is building a healthier future for all through its integrated health services. As one of the nation’s largest nonprofit Catholic healthcare organizations, CommonSpirit Health delivers more than 20 million patient encounters annually through more than 2,300 clinics, care sites and 137 hospital-based locations, in addition to its home-based services and virtual care offerings. CommonSpirit has more than 157,000 employees, 45,000 nurses and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice providers across 24 states and contributes more than $4.2 billion annually in charity care, community benefits and unreimbursed government programs. Together with our patients, physicians, partners, and communities, we are creating a more just, equitable, and innovative healthcare delivery system.

Depending on the position offered, CommonSpirit Health offers a generous benefit package, including but not limited to medical, prescription drug, dental, vision plans, life insurance, paid time off (full-time benefit eligible team members may receive a minimum of 14 paid time off days, including holidays annually), tuition reimbursement, retirement plan benefit(s) including, but not limited to, 401(k), 403(b), and other defined benefits offerings, as may be amended from time to time. For more information, please visit our Total Rewards.

Unless directed by a Collective Bargaining Agreement, applications for this position will be considered on a rolling basis. CommonSpirit Health cannot anticipate the date by which a successful candidate may be identified.