Rex Healthcare Named One of Top 200 Hospitals in Coding Study
Posted: 11-17-2008 : RALEIGH, N.C.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Rex Healthcare is the only hospital in Raleigh, and one of only eight hospitals in North Carolina, to receive honors from Ingenix for excellence in medical coding. Rex Healthcare has been ranked 43rd out of 1,400 in its category – Urban, Non-Teaching Coding Hospitals – in this year’s “Top 200 Coding Hospitals in the U.S.” This recognition, announced in October, commends Rex for demonstrating a high level of completeness and accuracy in medical coding and billing practices that are used to bill Medicare for inpatient services.

Ingenix, a national leader in streamline coding, evaluated more than 4,600 hospitals throughout the study.

“Patient care is our top priority, and ensuring coding accuracy helps keep our patient records up to date and prevents medical errors,” said Bernadette Spong, senior vice president of finance/CFO. “This recognition demonstrates our commitment to our patients and I am so proud of our teams for their hard work.”

This study, now in its fifth year, reflects hospitals’ outstanding performance and diligence in healthcare administration. To select the hospitals most deserving of this award, Ingenix experts analyzed the recently released 2007 Medicare Provider Analysis Review (MedPAR). Hospitals were then divided into four categories based on location and their teaching hospital status. Experts then identified the 13 most common scenarios in which coding errors occurred. After a careful analysis of cases, Ingenix selected the hospitals which had the highest average score for complete and compliant coding.

A complete listing of the 2008 award recipients can be found on Ingenix’s Web site, and leading publications such as Healthcare IT News and Healthcare Finance News have also featured this award.

For more information about Ingenix’s “Top 200 Coding Hospitals in the U.S.,” please call (800) 765-6709 or visit ingenix.com. For more information about Rex Healthcare, please visit rexhealth.com.

About Rex Healthcare
Rex Healthcare, a member of UNC Health Care, is a private, not-for-profit health care system, with 4,400 employees. Rex Healthcare has 665-beds (433 general acute beds, six inpatient hospice and 226 skilled nursing) and treats more than 26,000 inpatients each year. Rex offers dedicated centers for women, cancer, post acute rehabilitation and skilled nursing care, heart and vascular, same-day surgery and wellness, plus dedicated clinics for pain management, heartburn, wound care, sleep disorders, diabetes education and state-of-the-art emergency services. Rex provides various healthcare services throughout Wake County with facilities in Cary, Apex, Garner, Wakefield and downtown Raleigh. Rex is also the first hospital in the Triangle, and one of only 10 in North Carolina, to receive Magnet Recognition, which places Rex nurses among the top two percent in the country. In 2008, Rex was listed as one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Healthcare. Rex was also named a Top 100 Performance Improvement Leader by Thomson Reuters.

About the “Top 200 Coding Hospitals in the U.S.”
In its fifth year, this study aims to spotlight the performance of hospitals that have outstanding performance in coding practices. Using the previous year’s Medicare Provider Analysis Review, hospitals are ranked according to the frequency of that common coding errors occurred. Hospitals are divided into the following categories: Urban, Teaching; Urban, Non-teaching; Rural, Teaching; Rural, Non-teaching. The top 50 hospitals in each category are awarded these honors. The results are announced in October of each year, and a complete list is available on Ingenix’s Web site. For more information on the study, please call (800) 765-6709 or visit ingenix.com.

About Inginex
For the past 25 years, Ingenix has been a national leader in streamlined coding, regulatory and reimbursement process for the healthcare industry. They are the market source for severity-adjusted training, implementation and solutions. Ingenix developed Ingenix Web.Strat – a Web-based application that extends coding, compliance and management tools throughout an organization. Ingenix works to help clients increase revenue, increase productivity and simplify administrative processes. One of the fastest growing companies in the U.S., they employ more than 8,300 professionals worldwide. For more information about Ingenix, please visit ingenix.com.