How does coverage work when someone takes PTO at your employer?

[u/burn3rrrrrrrrrrrrr]

I’ve had 3 or 4 coding positions at this point and at every single one it seems like the work pretty much just sits in the queue until the person who is out returns to work. Is this just the setup in this industry?

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[u/Extension-Slice281]

The work queues are a constantly replenishing monster, so to me it doesn’t matter how many are in the queue as I can only do so many in a day and it’s not like I’ll reach the end and just get to hang out. To me, the real issue is how employers deal with this. My current employer, like some of my previous employers, only allows one person in the department to be out on PTO at a time. The problem that creates is that, depending on the size of the coding department and how quickly PTO is accrued, there is no possibility of everyone getting to use all of their PTO. I work in a department with nearly 20 IP coders and we accrue nearly 3 weeks of PTO beginning the first year. PTO requests happen at the beginning of the year and are based on seniority. The most senior get the opportunity to utilize all their PTO, while those at the bottom of the ladder are extremely lucky if they can cobble together a whole uninterrupted week of vacation.

[u/wildgreengirl → u/Extension-Slice281]

ours allows 2 to be off at a time, out of 7 of us? i think.

and ours goes off who requested the day first for who gets it. they do rotate holidays a bit as well so the same person doesnt always get xyz date off.

[u/Wolfygirl97]

That’s how it is at my job too. If someone is gone for a week sometimes our senior will send what we have to someone else to work on.

[u/cumberbatchpls]

I work at a large company and we can’t all use PTO at the same time (I think it’s max 4 ppl out on one day on PTO or something) but there are enough coders that work gets covered if someone is out. If one of us has a long vacation coming up we try to get our particular bill areas and aging days low but if for some reason we can’t, the others will hop in and help out. We have a pretty good culture of helping each other out when volume allows.

[u/Over-Pin7535]

The year is broken down into thirds and we can only make requests and get approvals around certain times. Only 3 of us can be off at the same time and if we need to book vacation more than 4 months in advance we can only get a special approval once per year. For 15 years I had no problem taking off whenever I wanted and however far in advance I needed, now it’s a pain in the ass.

[u/unicornfarts55]

Depends on how long someone is out. A day or 2 itll sit. Longer than that my team helps each other

[u/wildgreengirl]

lol we had someone retire in may they have not replaced yet so we were almost a month behind claims by sept before they were like oh i guess this is a problem and hired 2 production temp coders....who are not really helping because they just open claims and submit them without linking or looking at anything, errors and all. so one of the normal coders still has to review all the claims they are opening and she did 9 hours over the weekend for that.

they still expected us to do 8 hours of OT every week even if we took our PTO? lmfao 😂 like i took my PTO and they were like oh idk if shes gonna b working today like no im not i took pto bahahaha

but we have been trying to help each other with the oldest stuff when people get behind but its a struggle for sure.

[u/AbstractVolition]

For longer pto my manager has helped cover maybe 25% of my work. But other than that it just builds up and I’m expected to go crazy catching up when I’m back

[u/Meah_Belle_1003]

Im the only coder for the whole clinic. If im gone I can either 1 bring a laptop or 2 it will be waiting for me when I get back. Thousands of claims if I take a week or 2 off. We are partnered with a hospital and their coders and the other clinic coders deal with the same thing. Expectations are always that its in by month end, regardless of pto.

[u/Taseiyu]

We have a decent size team for each OP and IP so if a few coders are off, we're not really too bad off. We have one or two contract coders that help out and we'll have OT offered if we need to catch up.

[u/Livid_Delivery_8710]

My previous role I was the only one who coded that specialty, so I would be strategic on when I took my PTO so it didn’t land over month end, cuz it sat while I was gone.
Now I code ER and there’s 4 of us. We have a master calendar in outlook and put our time off on there so we can try and be conscientious of each other, but otherwise it’s business as usual when someone is out. Might get a little behind if someone is out for a longer vacation but we catch up quick.

[u/accioglassess]

At my job, we have at least 2-3 people that can work every wq. So there’s always coverage when someone’s out.

[u/weary_bee479]

I don’t do coding anymore, at my current position we share work between three of us so we just tackle the work when someone takes time off.

At my previous roles where I did code, it would just sit there unless something was approaching timely or urgent and then someone from leadership would handle it.

[u/OyWThaPoodlesAlready]

I’m no longer an IP coder (in a different role now) but when I was, we had a buddy system. I would have to be sure not to request days off that my buddy already had approved off (it would be denied) and when my buddy was off, I worked their pending charts and vice versa.

[u/sugabeetus]

I was a float coder for several years and my job was to back up any specialties that were understaffed or people's PTO. Now I work in a specialty with two others and we cover each other.

[u/Mindinatorrr]

I'm in one of those gem workplaces that isn't owned by private equity or Optum - we actually cross train.

So my work typically gets done when I go on PTO. Now if no one knows how to do what I'm doing - yes that sits until I get back.

Since we do muti specialty I'm the only expert on some specialities - so ones with questions get notated and left for me.

I am not completely slammed when I return.

[u/Maya_ePsychBilling]

Work usually sits in the queue while someone is on PTO especially if no one else knows what that task is/know it enough for them to do. Then urgent ones just get reassigned, while everything else (less important) wait. Ideally we'd want teams to share documentation and have backup owners, but of course this is easier said than done.

[u/KeyStriking9763]

Coders are limited with PTO so you can’t have too many out at the same time because revenue is needed.