Frank Vidal MMC

“A lifetime of education”

In the summer of 1978, a young college freshman named Frank Vidal first encountered what would end up being the core of the rest of his life as well as the beginning of a relationship with healthcare communications that would span a quarter century, and keeps on to this very day. what he encountered was the International Classification of Diseases and the procedural coding nomenclatures developed and published by the American Medical Association.

“From the very first time I saw the coding nomenclatures, I was blown away.  To take a science like medicine, which is simultaneously abstract and specific, as well as constantly changing and evolving, and to organize the science into a logistic sequence based index format for communication is to me, one of the most genial works of humanity”

The first 10 years would bring to the future medical coder years of study, work, responsibility and an in-depth personal voyage into the world of medicine and its relationship to medical coding application that would amaze even the most ardent academic.

1988 brought with it a significant event in the world of medical coding as well as in the life of Frank Vidal. 1988 was the year that the Catastrophic Care Act was passed by congress, allowing physicians and hospitals to bill the Medicare, Medicaid and Private insurance companies DIRECTLY for services rendered to covered patients. The services rendered were to be communicated to the payers in claim form, using the MEDICAL CODING nomenclatures of CPT® (Current Procedural Terminology) [registered trademark of the American Medical Association], the Clinical Modification of the International Classification of Diseases and other nomenclatures developed by the government for communicating healthcare. The same year would see Frank awarded the designation of Certified Medical Coder by the International Academy of Medical Coding; an idealistic concept dedicated to the study and education of medical coding, in all of its forms on a global level.

These two events combined to help launch Frank into the task of not just performing coding services for the healthcare industry, but educating the individuals who were suddenly saddled with the responsibility of performing medical coding without ANY training whatsoever. Even though Medical Coding had been around for a very long time, it seemed as though it was never able to break out of its prison of non-recognition, even as it was, by mandate, made the only form of communications allowed on a healthcare claim, to this very day.  Frank Vidal set out to sell his services as a medical coder and educate America on the wonders of Medical Coding.  Four years and many pairs of shoes later, a lot of people were not getting the message. By 1992 the assignment of healthcare benefits had become routine, but the codes that were required on the claims as reported were considered at best a nuisance and necessary evil. Frank could not understand why people couldn’t see the vital and indispensable importance of medical coding education in the industry. The time was not completely wasted; however, Frank continued studying medical coding furiously and independently, and in 1992 applied for and passed the examinations to earn the designation of Master Medical Coder from the IAMC. Today, the Academy only has 12 MMC’s in the world, and Frank is the only one in the US. In the same year, Frank was allowed to open a chapter of the Academy in the United States.

By 1993, the U.S. healthcare industry began to get the message on medical coding. The procedural codes were revised to include new definitions of evaluation and management (the doctor’s visit) and more attention was being paid to the codes placed on claim forms. The market responded to Frank also. From 1993 to 1999, Frank and his company Frank Vidal Consulting Services provided coding and billing services to over 1,500 physicians and groups and 65 hospitals and rehabilitation centers in the United States.  Frank’s work ethic, passion and thorough knowledge of medical coding began to become known and recognized as the best the industry had to offer.

During this time, Frank also focused on developing medical coding education and healthcare tools. By 1998 Frank developed the educational curriculum for the Certified Medical Coder program sponsored by the International Academy of Medical Coding USA, and began his goal to educate and certify as many of the 200,000 plus individuals performing medical coding as possible.  Frank Vidal medical Coding was born and developed the Certified Medical Coder program, which is the only course authorized by the Academy in the US to prepare for a Certified Medical Coder designation. In 1998 Frank also developed and patented a documentation system designed to help doctors document in the now required E/M format.

Today, Frank Vidal Consulting services has streamlined its coding and billing services so that Frank could dedicate more time to the education of Certified Medical Coders. As Chairman of the International Academy of Medical Coding USA and president of Frank Vidal medical Coding, he continues to pursue the goal of educating and certifying as many coders as possible. In 2003, in response to the overwhelming demand for his educational services, the Certified Medical Coder course was launched in an interactive DVD based format, allowing coders to benefit from Frank’s dynamic and unique teaching methods at their own pace.

As the presence of the Academy and the number of Academy certified coders grows, we grow nearer every day to Frank’s goal of quality education and support for medical coders everywhere. Nowhere else can a person get the quality of medical coding education in the way that Frank teaches it. Together, the family of Certified Medical Coders can finally obtain the respect and recognition that is due to the critically important profession of medical coding and the dedicated coders that comprise the heart and soul of the craft.

Let’s Code!