UnitedHealth Group

  • San Diego, CA


  • Permanent

  • Full-time

Combine two of the fastest-growing fields on the planet with a culture of performance, collaboration and opportunity and this is what you get. Leading edge technology in an industry that’s improving the lives of millions. Here, innovation isn’t about another gadget, it’s about making health care data available wherever and whenever people need it, safely and reliably. There’s no room for error. Join us and start doing your life’s best work.

This position is full-time (40 hours/week) Monday – Friday. Employees are required to have flexibility to work any of our 8 hour shift schedules during our normal business hours of 8am – 5pm. It may be necessary, given the business need, to work occasional overtime.

What we do defines who we are. Take a deeper look at how we’re providing support during this global health crisis and search for a way you can get involved. View our Covid-19 Resources Page at:

Primary Responsibilities:

  • Abstract and code complex outpatient and inpatient medical records for psychiatric patients using International Coding of Diseases (ICD-10)
  • Review medical records for appropriate documentation to support ICD-10 codes
  • Properly document codes in the electronic medical record and other systems
  • Assist with coding and billing medical record audits
  • Evaluate medical records for coding completeness and accuracy in conformance with current standards and regulations
  • Provide feedback to physicians to clarify information for coding purposes
  • Establish and maintain processes to effectively code inpatient and emergency psychiatric unit patients
  • Identify areas in clinical documentation that are unclear or incomplete and generate queries to obtain additional information
  • Follow up with providers as necessary when responses to queries are not provided in a timely basis
  • Leverage understanding of disease process to identify and extract relevant details and data within clinical documentation and make determinations or identify appropriate medical codes
  • Utilize resources and reference materials (e.g., on-line sources, manuals) to identify appropriate medical codes and reference code applicability, rules, and guidelines
  • Develop training materials for coding and auditing for external partners, stakeholders and internal departments
  • Conduct audits of inpatient professional services to ensure documentation is present for claims to be substantiated and prepares findings
  • Conduct targeted audits of providers with applicable indicators to ensure documentation is present for claims to be substantiated and prepares findings
  • Participate in quality improvement projects and activities
  • Other responsibilities as assigned

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

  • High School Diploma or higher level of education
  • Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) issued by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) or Certified Professional Coder (CPC) American Association of Professional Coders
  • 2+ years of experience in medical coding
  • Excellent computer skills including experience working with Microsoft Excel (v-lookup and pivot tables), Word (create/edit/save/send documents), PowerPoint (create and edit presentations), and Outlook (send/receive emails and utilize calendar)
  • Data entry experience
  • Ability to accommodate some field-based travel within the San Diego county area (up to 25%)
  • Must be able to obtain and maintain access to the County of San Diego’s electronic health record, Cerner Community Behavioral Health (CCBH)
  • If you need to enter a work site for any reason, you will be required to screen for symptoms using the ProtectWell mobile app, Interactive Voice Response (i.e., entering your symptoms via phone system) or similar UnitedHealth Group-approved symptom screener. When in a UnitedHealth Group building, employees are required to wear a mask in common areas. In addition, employees must comply with any state and local masking orders

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree or higher level of education
  • Experience coding in the area of psychiatric medicine
  • Experience in project management or data analysis
  • Quality improvement experience

UnitedHealth Group is an essential business. The health and safety of our team members is our highest priority, so we are taking a science driven approach to slowly welcome and transition some of our workforce back to the office with many safety protocols in place. We continue to monitor and assess before we confirm the return of each wave, paying specific attention to geography-specific trends. We have taken steps to ensure the safety of our 325,000 team members and their families, providing them with resources and support as they continue to serve the members, patients and customers who depend on us.

Some of the steps we’ve taken to ensure employee well-being include:

  • Launched our ProtectWell app and UnitedCARES program to help ease the burden and stress for our UnitedHealth Group team members and their immediate family affected by COVID-19
  • Daily updates from our CEO Dave Wichmann to support and inspire team members during this challenging time
  • Onsite social distancing and increased sanitization measures for employees who have been welcomed back to our offices
  • Fully cover the COVID-19 healthcare costs for our employees

You can learn more about all we are doing to fight COVID-19 and support impacted communities at:

Careers with Optum. Here’s the idea. We built an entire organization around one giant objective; make the health system work better for everyone. So when it comes to how we use the world’s large accumulation of health-related information, or guide health and lifestyle choices or manage pharmacy benefits for millions, our first goal is to leap beyond the status quo and uncover new ways to serve. Optum, part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses, brings together some of the greatest minds and most advanced ideas on where health care has to go in order to reach its fullest potential. For you, that means working on high performance teams against sophisticated challenges that matter. Optum, incredible ideas in one incredible company and a singular opportunity to do your life’s best work.SM

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.

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UnitedHealth Group

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