Optimizing your output: maximizing documentation efficiency and improving reimbursement

, 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.