Traditionally, coding professionals have been sectioned off into specialties and subspecialties that made up the majority of their career paths, especially in larger institutions. This division allowed coding professionals to become focused experts at the many and varied types of coding, from inpatient admissions to outpatient same-day surgical encounters, to diagnostic testing, and everything in between. For fully staffed and stable healthcare institutions, this was the standard of the day and functioned smoothly and predictably for many years.

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