Why most staff coders use a personal phone
If you work at a big shop, the work laptop is usually monitored. The personal phone is the path of least friction.
Nothing to install on the work laptop
Open hccbuddy.com in any mobile browser. No Chrome extension required, no IT ticket, no work-laptop browser policy review.
Nothing tied to your employer's network
Sign in on personal Wi-Fi or cellular. Works in airplane mode for offline reference once a code is loaded. Your employer's VPN does not see HCC Buddy traffic.
Looks like a normal website in any tab
No proprietary client to flag in a screen-share. No floating overlay in your EMR. Just a tab on your phone you can swipe to when you need it.
What HCC Buddy gives you on a phone-sized screen
Every tool that matters for risk-adjustment lookup, sized for a thumb.
ICD-10 encoder with HCC mapping
Search any ICD-10-CM code. See the HCC category, RAF weight, and V28 flag in the same view.
Ask Buddy for coding questions
Type a question about MEAT documentation, V28 specificity, or whether a code maps. Ask Buddy answers with citations grounded in CMS sources.
NPI provider lookup
9.37 million NPPES records, searchable by name or NPI number, mobile-formatted for one-tap copy.
Smart Notes for context you want to keep
Save the reminder you would have written on a sticky note. Linked to the code, exportable to Google Docs when you are back at a real keyboard.
Common questions from staff coders
- Will my employer see HCC Buddy in my browser history?
- If you use HCC Buddy on a personal device on personal Wi-Fi or cellular, your employer sees nothing. If you sign in on a work laptop, that laptop's monitoring stack will log it the same way it logs any other website.
- Do I need to install a Chrome extension to use HCC Buddy?
- No. The mobile website is the full product for personal-phone use. The Chrome extension is optional — it adds a side-panel and right-click lookup on desktop, but every feature is reachable from the website.
- Does HCC Buddy work offline?
- Once a code or page has loaded, you can scroll and read it offline. Live search and Ask Buddy require a connection. For air-gapped reference, save the code page to a screenshot or use Smart Notes to capture the context.
- Can I expense HCC Buddy as a coder?
- Some W2 coders expense it through their employer's continuing-education budget. Others pay personally because the founding price is $19.99/month and the workflow stays personal. We don't restrict either path.
- Do you offer a student or new-coder discount?
- The $19.99/month founding-member price is currently the lowest tier we publish. New CPC and CRC coders are exactly who founding is for — sign up before the quota closes.