The future of medical coding seems promising given its significance. In fact, there is a massive demand for medical coders and billers in the market. Medical coding makes it easier to report and track thousands of medical services, quantities of injectable drugs, their supplies, etc. Additionally, it has the potential to standardize healthcare representation and language. These include numerous acronyms, descriptions, names, procedures, eponyms for every disease, etc.
The growing demand for standardization is increasing the scope of coding-based jobs. Here are the top medical coding industry trends and details on critical market segmentation.
Current Trends in Medical Coding
ICD (International Classification of Diseases) has become the largest segment; It is deemed to expand during the forecast period
We can expect a significant revenue expansion in the ICD segment. Due to the increasing disease prevalence, ICD requirements are growing across the globe leading to high demand for trained and experienced medical coders. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases are the number 1 reason for death worldwide. They claim approximately 17.9 million lives every year. An increase in cardiovascular illnesses is directly boosting the demand for medical coding services.
The latest version of ICD is expected to witness a surge in its usage. The ICD-11 version allows member states to translate ICD into their native languages, boosting implementation. This version contains 55,000 unique codes for diseases, death causes and injuries. The trend indicates a well-established future of coding in healthcare.
North America is about to become the biggest market over the forecast period
Estimates suggest, North America is the largest shareholder in market revenue, thanks to healthcare infrastructure and technologies in various countries across the region. At the same time, the USA in the North American region holds the biggest market share owing to factors like growth in chronic diseases and the geriatric population. It will stimulate the medical coding growth rate in the region.
The American Heart Association Research Report shows that heart-related diseases cause 1 in 7 deaths in the USA. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death at 43.8%, followed by strokes at 16.8%, high blood pressure at 9.4%, heart failure at 9.0%, artery diseases at 3.1%, and additional cardiovascular illnesses causing 17.9% of deaths. Considering both the above statistics, the future of medical coding seems expansive.
Critical Market Segmentation by the Report
A report by ResearchAndMarket.com explains that the medical coding market can reach USD 28,363.63 million by 2026. The report is categorized into the following segments aside from region-based data.
By component:
- Outsourced
- In-house
By classification system:
- ICD
- HCPCS
By end-user:
- Diagnostic Centers
- Hospitals
- Others
Recent Developments in the Medical Coding Market
Last year, Innoventrum partnered with Dental Medical Billing. They introduced a premier credentialing program focusing on dental-to-medical billing and cross-coding. The program will let participants earn designations in 9 specializations. The designations will include sleep apnea, sedation dentistry, implant coding, oral surgery, CBCT scans coding, and reimbursement.
Conclusion
Looking at the report’s scope, it is evident that current trends in medical coding are transforming medical services, healthcare diagnosis, procedures and universal medical alphanumeric code equipment. The future of coding in the medical field seems positive considering its use in the current scenario.
Medical coding can help create a well-organized patient care record, streamline medical billing procedures, identify improvement areas in healthcare, accelerate salary distribution of physicians, and so on. It is a fact that medical coding can increase healthcare efficiency by automating substantial amounts of work.
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