Medical coding system with integrated codebook interface

Abstract

Techniques for use in medical coding include applying a natural language understanding engine to a free-form text documenting at least one clinical patient encounter to generate a set of one or more medical billing codes for the patient encounter. A user interface may be provided, configured to allow one or more human users to review and correct the generated set of medical billing codes. Within the user interface, in response to user selection of a first medical billing code of the generated set of medical billing codes, at least a portion of a government-authorized codebook for the first medical billing code may be displayed, and a position of the first medical billing code may be indicated in the displayed portion of the codebook.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 applying a natural language understanding engine to a free-form text documenting at least one clinical patient encounter to generate a set of one or more medical billing codes for the at least one clinical patient encounter;   providing a user interface configured to allow one or more human users to review and correct the generated set of medical billing codes; and   within the user interface, in response to user selection of a first medical billing code of the generated set of medical billing codes, displaying at least a portion of a government-authorized codebook for the first medical billing code, and indicating a position of the first medical billing code in the displayed at least a portion of the codebook.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the government-authorized codebook is an official ICD or HCPCS codebook. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the codebook comprises a data structure representing a tree of medical billing codes, wherein the position of the first medical billing code is a node in the tree. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein displaying the at least a portion of the codebook comprises displaying the node corresponding to the first medical billing code in context of adjacent nodes in the tree. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying, within the user interface, one or more coding rules for the first medical billing code. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising allowing a user to navigate the displayed codebook to select a replacement medical billing code for the first medical billing code. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising re-training the natural language understanding engine based at least in part on the user's selection of the replacement medical billing code for the first medical billing code. 
     
     
         8 . At least one computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:
 applying a natural language understanding engine to a free-form text documenting at least one clinical patient encounter to generate a set of one or more medical billing codes for the at least one clinical patient encounter;   providing a user interface configured to allow one or more human users to review and correct the generated set of medical billing codes; and   within the user interface, in response to user selection of a first medical billing code of the generated set of medical billing codes, displaying at least a portion of a government-authorized codebook for the first medical billing code, and indicating a position of the first medical billing code in the displayed at least a portion of the codebook.   
     
     
         9 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 8 , wherein the government-authorized codebook is an official ICD or HCPCS codebook. 
     
     
         10 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 8 , wherein the codebook comprises a data structure representing a tree of medical billing codes, wherein the position of the first medical billing code is a node in the tree. 
     
     
         11 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 10 , wherein displaying the at least a portion of the codebook comprises displaying the node corresponding to the first medical billing code in context of adjacent nodes in the tree. 
     
     
         12 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises displaying, within the user interface, one or more coding rules for the first medical billing code. 
     
     
         13 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises allowing a user to navigate the displayed codebook to select a replacement medical billing code for the first medical billing code. 
     
     
         14 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises re-training the natural language understanding engine based at least in part on the user's selection of the replacement medical billing code for the first medical billing code. 
     
     
         15 . Apparatus comprising:
 at least one processor; and   at least one storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method comprising:
 applying a natural language understanding engine to a free-form text documenting at least one clinical patient encounter to generate a set of one or more medical billing codes for the at least one clinical patient encounter; 
 providing a user interface configured to allow one or more human users to review and correct the generated set of medical billing codes; and 
 within the user interface, in response to user selection of a first medical billing code of the generated set of medical billing codes, displaying at least a portion of a government-authorized codebook for the first medical billing code, and indicating a position of the first medical billing code in the displayed at least a portion of the codebook. 
   
     
     
         16 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the government-authorized codebook is an official ICD or HCPCS codebook. 
     
     
         17 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the codebook comprises a data structure representing a tree of medical billing codes, wherein the position of the first medical billing code is a node in the tree. 
     
     
         18 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein displaying the at least a portion of the codebook comprises displaying the node corresponding to the first medical billing code in context of adjacent nodes in the tree. 
     
     
         19 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises displaying, within the user interface, one or more coding rules for the first medical billing code. 
     
     
         20 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises allowing a user to navigate the displayed codebook to select a replacement medical billing code for the first medical billing code.