Part 3
The method I used in each post reflected on my own personal experience working in a doctor’s office. In post one I utilized terms that reflects my knowledge today as an experience front office employee. The voice behind my second post required me to reflect back to when I first began as an intern without any previous experience in the medical field. The language I used was reflective of how I was personally taught these concepts which guided my thought process when writing part two.
Part one was very brief due to the fact that I did not need explanations behind the vocabulary or jargon I used. I found this appropriate because medical professionals typically do not need further elaboration on certain terminology compared to an intern who does require more details and definition. In part two, I took the time to define the terms but in brief everyday language. An example of this was when I’m introduced the fee- for-service payment methods. In post one I only introduce the term and mention a small reason about the implications of this method are and immediately transition to the next method of payment. In my second post I still use a brief explanation but my tone is much more casual tone when I stated “fee-for-service, It’s exactly how it’s written out, you pay a fee for a service.” Like my first post I am defining the term but the difference now is that the language being used was meant to help the reader understand that the term isn’t so complex and that they probably already had an idea of what it meant beforehand. I took a further step in defining the vocabulary by explaining both the advantages and disadvantages for capitation and fee-for-service. It was implemented to give the laymen a complete understanding behind the fee for service and why it’s the more traditional method. In doing that I had to simplify the advantages and disadvantages to how they only relate to the physician to maintain continuity in my structure. If I had gone on a tangent about the advantages and disadvantages for patients I would have no longer been focusing on why fee-for-service or capitation is a preferred method for the physician’s income.
The use of analogies and examples are other tactics I used in the two ways I described physician reimbursement. Part two uses many analogies to help explain certain concepts. I found this effective when relating it to the my own person experience.As an intern I learned concepts best when I was given examples and analogies and thought it would be useful in explaining it in layman’s terms. This was evident when I was describing what ICD-9 and CPT codes mean when used in a progress note. My analogy used an actual person going to see the doctor for an an everyday occurrence like a sore throat, to illustrate the commonality behind this.The point I wanted to drive home was even a simple complaint has a very specific code attached to it and a strict protocol. During the process of simplification I was unable to go into depth about what each number of the code meant which I thought had illustrated the complexity behind this process. I realized that complexity was not as important as illustrating the importance of why our system uses codes, which is to categorize what happened during the doctor’s visit so the insurance companies can simplify it into in a brief format for billing and accurate reimbursement.
Although each part explained the exact same topic in health sciences, the thought process behind writing for each audience was what posed the biggest challenge. It seemed the most complex part was simplifying the language and topic being discussed. Nevertheless, the end product resulted in two very different explanations that can each be interpreted differently based off the experience of the audience the topic is written for.
