Abstract: A system and method identifies coding errors in claims for an episode of medical care, comprising in combination a process that translates into one format, input claims data that encode multiple health care services delivered in an episode of care for a patient; a process that pre-sorts the claim data by excluding claim data that is incorrect, incomplete, duplicated, and improperly formatted; a compiling process for gathering claims data for the episode of care; and a coding conflict engine for comparing the data in each claim of the episode of care with the data in all other claims in the episode of care to determine inconsistencies in the record. The results may be processed to decide how to recover incorrect payments.