Optimizing your output: maximizing documentation efficiency and improving reimbursement

As acute care surgery (ACS) continues to expand its clinical scope surgeons are increasingly asked to navigate complex documentation and reimbursement systems. Despite their central role in trauma, emergency general surgery, and critical care, most surgeons receive limited formal training in coding and billing. To address this gap, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma convened an expert panel, Optimizing Your Output: Advanced Coding and Billing for ACS Surgeons, at its 83rd annual meeting in 2024. This article synthesizes the panel's key recommendations aimed at improving documentation accuracy, enhancing charge capture, and ensuring appropriate reimbursement for ACS practices. We review Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requirements for coding with students, residents, fellows, advanced practice providers, and cosurgeons; outline essential evaluation and management and procedural modifiers that influence billing during global periods; and provide strategies to optimize critical care documentation, including appropriate use of time-based billing and identification of separately billable procedures. Through practical examples, sample attestations, and clarification of modifiers and global periods, this review offers actionable guidance for ACS surgeons seeking to align clinical documentation with current policy standards. Improving familiarity with coding principles enables surgeons to more accurately represent the complexity of their work, maximize reimbursement, and strengthen their role in shaping evolving healthcare economic policy.