Coding & Reimbursement Network, Inc.

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When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. - Edgar Watson Howe

Interview with Dianne Wilkinson

RHIT, CCP, CPHQ

  • What is your name?

Dianne Wilkinson

 

  • Where are you from?

Originally from Blytheville, AR; been in TN for 26 years (in Dyersburg, TN with MedSouth Healthcare/Practice Consultants since 1995).

 

  • What is your favorite activity?

Writing Southern Gospel music.  Have been successful in getting songs recorded since 1976.  Details at my web site, www.diannewilkinson.com.  I suppose one would call me bi-vocational…I love them both.

 

  • Do you have any hobbies?

See #3; also love old movies (REALLY old).

 

  • What credentials do you hold?

RHIT; CCP; CPHQ which is a holdover from my 25 years in the hospital business when I was over QM/JCAHO coordination, etc.

 

  • What organizations do you belong to and how have they helped your career?

Have been a member of AHIMA for 26 years…it’s been a blessing all the way through.

 

  • How did you get into the field of medical billing and coding?

I grew up in an Air Force Base town and got a civil service job when I was in my early 20s.  The base hospital had a small med/surg unit and a one-person medical record department.  I got that job with no previous experience in 1969, and coding was the first thing they taught me.  It’s almost 37 years later, and I still love coding and all forms of chart abstracting.

 

  • What is your current position?

I am compliance officer/quality manager for MedSouth Healthcare, a large multispecialty multilocation group in West TN ; we also have a separate LLC (MedSouth Practice Consultants) for my consulting services; go all over West and Middle TN doing teaching & compliance activities to our client physicians and their employees.  LOVE it! 

 

  • What is one of your accomplishments in this field that you are most proud of?

I suppose my career highlight was in the last year of my hospital career when I led my hospital to a perfect score of 100 on a JCAHO survey.  It was an HCA hospital, and the first one to do so.  In the big picture, being allowed by the grace of God to have a career for 37 years that I love and am still able to do at 61 years of age.

 

  • What do you find most exciting about this field?

Everything!  Especially that moment when I see the “lights come on” when I’m teaching physicians the E&M guidelines and can really see that they are on board with me.  I have made a career out of getting doctors to do things they hate; have always been known as the gal who can motivate physicians.

 

  • What do you find most frustrating?

Medicare rules when they make no sense.

 

  • What do you feel the future holds for this field?

The sky’s the limit.  As long as doctors practice medicine and try to get paid for it, their services will have to be translated into something that can go into a computer.  And doctors will always need help from professionals like us to get this done.

 

  • What would you tell someone just starting out in this field?

You’ll know pretty quickly if you’re going to love it.  If you do, study and work hard, and the rewards will be great. I only hope this business is as good to you as it’s been for me.

 

  • If there was one thing you could change about this field what would it be?

I wish there were more uniformity and concensus about the rules that govern us.

 

  • Who do you consider a mentor?

My HIM director in West Memphis , AR , in the early 1980s was Mrs. Lois Cain, RRA, who was really a legend in Arkansas in our career field at the time.  She is a precious lady (now retired), a wonderful friend to me, and she taught me a LOT about things, which still stand me in good stead today.  I always worked with Quality Assurance in the hospitals, and it is practically identical to Compliance activities.  In fact, you even write the plan the same way.  She taught me how to write a QA plan.

 

  • What is your favorite billing or coding product?

    I guess the ones I find the most useful are the specialty-specific Coding Alerts from The Coding Institute (available from www.CRNShoppe.com at a discount) that we subscribe to.  I also LOVE Nancy Maguire’s “Break Through the Modifier Maze”.  I used the Coding Clinic faithfully in my hospital years; considered it the definitive resource.

 

  • What is your affiliation with the CRN and how has that helped you?

The list serve.  It’s great!

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