This course is designed to provide the student with an understanding of coding and classification systems in order to assign valid diagnostic and/or procedure codes for medical billing and reimbursement required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) including the validation of coded clinical information. The ICD-CM classification system is introduced with an emphasis on use of the alphabetic index and tabular list for code assignment. The course focuses on ICD-CM rules, conventions, and instructions as well as specific guidelines (e.g. circulatory, injury, pregnancy), including assignment criteria for principal and additional diagnoses in all applicable patient settings. The impact of proper code assignment, MS-DRGs and reimbursement are also discussed.