Automatically assigning medical codes using natural language processing

Abstract

A programmed implementation for automatically assigning medical codes (including diagnosis, procedure, and level of service—i.e., evaluation and management (EM)—codes) to computer readable physician notes using natural language processing. A system allows hospitals, physician management groups, and medical billing companies to automatically determine and assign the medical codes that are the basis of reimbursement for medical services. The proposed implementation can be in place of human medical coders who otherwise would be employed to determine and assign these codes. Implementation requires only minor modifications to the traditional data-flow and allows for major improvements in throughput and timeliness of billing. Further, the present scheme enables the collection of other demographic and clinical information that resides in physician notes, but that are currently too expensive and time consuming to extract by means of a human workforce.