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AS TEXT MESSAGING has come to replace telephone calls as the primary means of interpersonal communication, apps such as SwiftKey have popped up to help those with less than nimble thumbs. SwiftKey and other "intelligent keyboards" quickly learn a user's writing and typing style. They operate in the background of a smartphone and take note of frequently used expressions, punctuation, emojis, and slang in a user's text messages, emails, and social media posts. Before long, they're able to predict what a user is trying to say and autosuggests enough words that it drastically reduces the time it takes to type out a message.
While these apps are arguably helpful and "intelligent," they do require a human's touch to succeed-and they aren't without drawbacks. Before a user realizes it, "chicken noodle soup" can be autocorrected to "Chuck Norris soup." The internet is full of enough #autocorrectfails that savvy users know to slow down a bit to avoid embarrassing typos. Human beings understand that texts sent to bosses and colleagues require more care than a quick note to friends or significant others.
Computer-assisted coding (CAC) occupies a similar function in the lives of coding and health information management (HIM) professionals. CAC software uses natural language processing (NLP) to extract and translate transcribed free-text data or computer-generated discrete data into information for billing and coding purposes. Over time, the software picks up on a coding professional's frequently used codes-especially when used in a specialty hospital-and quickly becomes more precise, learning from instances when a coding professional overrides the CAC's suggested code with one that's more accurate.
Like apps that make texting faster, CAC's success is contingent on the reasoning, knowledge, and editing skills of the human beings who use it. Before ICD-10-CM/PCS went live in 2015, CAC was hailed by many in the industry as a miraculous tool for preventing massive coding slowdowns that some predicted the new code set would unleash.
Since that time, however, reality has set in and tempered the expectations of coding professionals and the many CAC vendors that promised life-changing results. With the ICD-10 transition in the rear-view mirror, it's time to re-evaluate the following promises CAC initially offered: that it would improve coding accuracy and documentation quality; that it would increase productivity;...