Inspirien recently hosted a medical coding hackathon where we offered medical coders the opportunity to earn $1,000 for coding 100 claims over a weekend. The purpose was to test a technology currently under development for helping healthcare providers improve their ability to get paid. Originally planned as an in-person event, it had to be moved online due to the Coronavirus.
Here’s what I learned:
- Life and business go on … even during a pandemic. Inspirien’s vision to inspire unique ideas and actions to help manage our partners’ risk is who we are and what we do and we’re serious about helping our customers solve some of their biggest problems. That said, the company has been working on a very exciting endeavor to help them do just that. Part of the effort was to do some testing of our solution via a “man versus machine” type event. As the date the host that event was approaching, the Coronavirus crisis struck. We were left with a decision to postpone or find another way. Happy to say, we found another way. The event was hosted online. It didn’t occur without a few minor hiccups, but in the end we got it done and without delaying the project timeline.
- Competition makes us better. It was interesting to observe several coders come together with a two-day timeline to code claims. The goal, which was clearly articulated to focus on quality not quantity, offered a competitive spirit even online. Each coder received a report upon completion that yielded their results. They were disappointed with the ones they coded incorrectly. I’m sure there was a certain satisfaction of being the fastest as well, even if that wasn’t the goal.
- We will always need people! Technology is a good thing. We should never let the fact that a machine can do something better than a human make us think that we don’t need people. Technology has and will continue replace many tasks done by humans today, but those same people will now be freed up to do more meaningful and valuable work. It’s actually very exciting!
We can’t wait to share more about this exciting solution. Please continue to follow us here as we prepare for a pilot in the next few months.
To connect with us on all things innovation, email us at innovation@inspirien.net.