The medical coding profession is one of the fastest developing fields in the U.S healthcare industry. If you plan on joining it as a full-time career, it’s a good decision, especially considering the business front of the profession. Continue reading “All The Ways You Benefit From A Medical Coding Degree”
Category: Can I Learn Medical Billing and Coding from Home?
Medical Coding Basics: What is Medical Coding?
It’s one of the fastest growing fields in the US and it pays really, really well… Continue reading “Medical Coding Basics: What is Medical Coding?”
What Are The Requirements Of Receiving A Medical Coding Certification?
Irrespective of the field, employers today want candidates with a strong educational background and practical work-related experience. Continue reading “What Are The Requirements Of Receiving A Medical Coding Certification?”
Medical Coding Basics: 5 More Things You Need to Know
Previously, we were discussing five essential things we believed people should know before pursuing a career in medical coding. We looked at what the profession is, its 19th century roots, what the job actually requires professionals to do, the subtle difference between inpatient and outpatient coding, and why credentials are important in the industry. Continue reading “Medical Coding Basics: 5 More Things You Need to Know”
Medical Coding Basics: 5 Things You Need to Know
More and more students are pursuing their majors in medical coding. With public interest in the noble profession at an all-time high, we decided now is the ideal time to give some market information about medical coding.
So, if you’re a medical coding student or if you’re looking to enroll in medical coding classes, here are 5 essential things you need to know.
1. It’s not the same as Medical Billing:
Before we begin, let’s clear out one thing; medical coding and medical billing are NOT the same profession. Given the fact that most promotional brochures tend to use these two terms interchangeably, it’s no wonder that most people mix up the two and consider them to be the same thing.
To set the record straight, medical coding professionals must convert medical records like diagnosis and lab results into alphanumeric codes. Medical billers, however, generate medical bills and bridge the gap between the insurance provider and the healthcare provider.
2. A Brief History:
You may be surprised to know but medical coding isn’t a new profession; it’s been around for centuries. The first medical coding system (called the Bertillon Classification of Causes of Death) was devised by French physician Dr. Jacques Bertillon in the late nineteenth century!
Granted the Bertillon Classification of Causes of Death wasn’t nearly as comprehensive as the coding systems used these days, it’s still widely considered to be the predecessor to medical coding.
3. The Nature of the Job:
Contrary to popular belief, medical coders don’t just have to sit at a desk all day and look at alphanumeric codes; their job is much more complex and nuanced than that. A medical coder’s typical day at work consists of review patient notes and converting them into medical codes.
Factors that dictate the quality of the code include clinical setting (inpatient coding or outpatient coding) and the nature of these services performed.
4. Inpatient and Outpatient Coding:
As discussed above, the complexity of the final bill depends a lot on the clinical setting i.e. whether the client was inpatient or an outpatient. Simply put, this refers to whether the patients had been admitted to the facility and had completed at least a 24 hour stay in the premises.
On the other hand, outpatient coding refers to the medical coding performed for patients who visited the healthcare center but were not admitted.
Fun Fact: If a patient was admitted for a few hours they will not be considered an inpatient unless they’ve been in clinic or hospital for at least 24 hours.
5. Credentials Matter:
It goes without saying that not all medical coders are the same, and as such you shouldn’t expect to have the same paycheck as your peers (more on that later). The most important aspect that dictates your pay grade is the credentials that you boast. For example, do you hold a CPC Certification or a CIRCC certification?
We’ve merely discussed medical coding on the surface as there remains a lot to discuss about the subject. Join us next time as we discuss more important facts about medical coding and list some advantages of doing so that will blow your mind!
About Allied Prep Technical Institute:
We are a medical training institute that conducts medical billing and coding training and provides certifications to our students on campus and online. Our rigorous tests and training programs arm our students with the knowledge and the expertise they need to perform their job at the highest level possible.
Contact us today to learn more about how you stand to benefit from signing up for our classes!
A Ghost Visit to a Medical Coder’s Office!
Many aspiring medical coders often wonder about what their life will be like once they get into the workforce. Continue reading “A Ghost Visit to a Medical Coder’s Office!”
The Advantages of Hiring an Experienced Medical Coder
For the longest time, the complicated processes of medical billing and medical coding were performed by licensed practitioners – even though they weren’t trained for the job. As the years went on, doctors and dentists alike began to realize that these two domains of healthcare are extremely complicated and should be handled by experienced billers and coders.
Thus began the migration towards outsourced medical billing and coding. If your healthcare center is late on the trend, allow us to explain how your professional practice stands to benefit from hiring an experienced medical coder.
1. Extensive Knowledge:
The best thing about getting an experienced medical coder on board is the unmatched wealth of knowledge and expertise that they possess. It’s no secret that coding is an incredibly difficult job (as the 10th rendition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases alone boasts more than 68,000 different medical codes).
However, by hiring a medical coder, you eliminate the need to memorize these codes and can focus on offering the best healthcare services to your patients.
2. Unmatched Experience:
It goes without saying that if you run a medical or dental practice, there are going to be complications involved. After all, every coder or biller who has worked in the industry for a long period of time is no stranger to rejected claims or payment complications.
That being said, experienced medical coders who have handled complicated projects in the past know how to handle these scenarios so as to minimize the downtime and enhance the end-user experience. Therefore, by hiring them, you can significantly improve your brand image and make things easier for your patients!
3. HIPAA Compliance – Guaranteed!
HIPAA compliance is mandatory for all medical and dental practices as any violations can leave you facing heavy sanctions and fines. What complicates proceedings is that these regulations change with time which makes it difficult for licensed practitioners to stay HIPAA compliant.
This is where an experienced medical coder comes into the picture. These highly-trained individuals know all there is to know about HIPAA compliance and can help your practice adhere to the ever-changing rules and regulations. This prevents financial losses and ensures that your practice doesn’t have to bear the brunt of lawsuits and legal proceedings.
4. Distractions Minimized:
The needlessly complicated process of medical coding can be very distracting to licensed practitioners who have little to no training in this domain of healthcare services.
In fact, medical coding can even limit their ability to care for their patients as they have to spend a significant portion of their day performing billing and coding tasks.
However, with an experienced medical coder on deck, doctors can minimize distractions and focus primarily on the quality of healthcare they provide.
This does wonders for the end-user experience and can even help you attract more patients in the future.
It’s because of these reasons (and countless others) that we’re such strong advocates of hiring experienced medical practitioners. We hope that this blog post has underlined the importance of medical billing and that your practice will only rely on experienced professionals in the future.
About Allied Prep Technical Institute:
We are a medical training institute that offers medical billing and coding training and certifications to our students on our campuses and online. Our rigorous tests and training programs arm our students with the knowledge and the expertise they need to perform their job at the highest level possible.
Contact us today to learn more about how you stand to benefit from signing up for our classes!
What You’ll Be Studying during Medical Billing and Coding Online Training
Medical Billing Certification Online can help you become a part of the most sought after services in the country i.e. healthcare! These days, the medical industry can’t just depend on physical records of patient data to fulfill the demands. They need professionals who are capable of collecting and accessing electronic data. By enrolling at a Medical Technical Institute, you can start your journey towards such a profession. Think of yourself as becoming the connecting link between the doctor, the patient, and the insurance company.
However, before that can happen, you will have to complete your Medical Billing And Coding Online training and acquire various career and interpersonal skills.
Let us look at some of the things you will learn as part of your Billing Coding Certification Online:
Anatomy
If you think Anatomy belongs in the med school, then you think wrong! This subject forms a core part of the program you will be enrolling in. After all, if you want to check whether a hospital has provided the right services to a patient to send the insurance company, you will need to know more about the human body. Each treatment has been assigned a code when it comes to billing. You will have to brush up on your anatomical knowledge because things are going to get body-part-specific.
Terminology
Once you have familiarized yourself with the human body and its ailments, you’d need to get even more technical. During Medical Billing Training Online, you must learn to speak the language of medical providers fluently, if you are to decode it! Even the abbreviations and shorthand they use on prescriptions must be known to you. Only after that will you be able to get the hospital the proper reimbursement it deserves for treating a patient. So, understanding the terminology is crucial and you will be taking the longer scenic route by learning about pre- and suffixes, and root words.
Current Procedural Terminology or CPT
Before you decide Where to Get Medical Billing and Coding Certification from, try and understand what will be expected of you. Your employers will expect you to be familiar with the CPT. This book is published by the AMA annually and it lists all the approved medical procedures that can be performed on patients. The manual describes each procedure and the body area it is performed upon. Moreover, there are specific codes for the body areas. When you go to a CPT class, you will also learn about the basic coding rules, read case studies, and then use codes to describe the services rendered in said case study.
The International Classification of Diseases- 9- Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) Book
Yes, the question Where Can I Learn Medical Billing And Coding is important but so is knowing what you are getting yourself into. The ICD-10-CM defines patient diagnoses and you will have to match them to the right CPT codes.
Medical Billing and Coding Curriculum
While enrolled in a medical billing and coding course, you will also learn about other stuff. This includes verification of healthcare documentation is accurate. Your classes will teach you how to maintain compliance with regulations, as well as, check if standard procedures were followed during treatment.
Medical Office Management
Online Classes make things much easier with life being so busy these days. Your training will also teach you important things about proper medical office management. That means aside from the financial aspects of billing, you will also need to develop your administrative and legal skills. Similarly, you’d also need to be excellent at both written and oral communication. You will be using those skills to get in touch with the patient and the insurance company. Another important part of your training is learning how to operate different software for medical billing, coding, and scheduling.
Health Information Management
After you have received training on how to operate software that deals with patient data, you will move on to the next important part: managing that data! Think about Where To Learn Medical Billing And Coding but pick a place that teaches you how to do that. Health information is private in most cases because it can include patient consent, HIPAA requirements, disclosure, and access requests. Misuse or leaking of that information can get you and your employer into legal and ethical trouble. You should not only know how to be discreet but also know how to retrieve the data when it is needed.
Internships & Externships
Medical Billing Certification can often involve completing an internship or an externship. This is usually for students taking on-campus certificate classes. It is also asked of candidates enrolled in an associate degree program. This can be another important thing to keep in mind when you are looking for prospective Medical Billing and Coding Schools. Most of them won’t offer these options online. Others might but they won’t be accredited, so of no value. Think carefully and enroll at a place that is fully invested in their students’ futures. An internship or an externship is an excellent opportunity for automatic placement.
Internships
Most internships don’t pay at all or don’t pay well. You will be working at a doctor’s office and under their supervision during the entire internship period. You can also intern at a hospital. Either way, you will be working for up to 6 months for credit that will be added later to your associates degree or certificate. If you do a good job of it, you will have formed a professional connection with a potential employer. That means you may be able to count on them for employment after graduation.
Externships
Medical Coding Training Online can also make an externship possible. While they are similar to internships, externships are different certain aspects. For instance, you won’t get paid or academic credit for the job. You will also work for 3 months or less.
Medical Billing Training helps a student develop many interpersonal skills, such as time management, communications, organization, and teamwork. Put some effort into learning and these skills will benefit you for life!
Emulate Outstanding Medical Billing and Coding Specialists with these Qualities
It is a great idea to work towards your medical billing certification online. What’s more? If you develop the following traits, you will become a successful medical biller or medical coder!
If you aren’t familiar with what a coding specialist does, then it is time you were! These professionals are a part of the healthcare industry. Also known as a health claims specialist, they are in charge of preparing, processing, and submitting medical insurance claims.
It is easy to receive your billing coding certification online these days. Moreover, choosing to become a medical and billing coding specialist is a lucrative career choice, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook. They report that more and more electronic ways of billing systems are needed in the healthcare industry. In fact, we will even be seeing an increase as large as 15% in medical and billing coding jobs as compared to other jobs.
However, before you begin to search where to get medical billing and coding certification, you should have a better idea of what you will need to succeed in the field. A medical billing and coding professional should be in possession of the following skills. If you have yet to master these skills, then enroll yourself in one of the good medical billing and coding schools. Work hard and you will easily develop them.
Attention to Detail
Before you think where can i learn medical billing and coding, start observing yourself to see if you are able to focus on details while working! For instance, most of your time will be spent with health records. A detail oriented mind wouldn’t miss important information when viewing patient history. Medical billing and coding professionals should be capable of ensuring such data is recorded in an accurate way, so it can be retrieved with efficiency. Train yourself to stay focused on the task!
Adept at Analysis
As you begin to take online classes for medical billing and coding, you will realize how important analytical skills are! If you are to take this up as a profession, you must be able to interpret the health records put in front of you and then analyze them properly. With possession of analytical skills, you will be able to maintain accuracy in patient medical records. This is critical because you will be looking for codes for medical procedures performed on patients based on that information. Similarly, a correct analysis will keep you from overbilling patients and seeing through fraudulent insurance claims.
The Right Education
Depending on the institute you enroll at, your medical billing and coding curriculum should cover all the necessary topics that you need to be familiar with. You can’t be considered a professional if you apply for a job after finishing your GED. Instead, if you want to impress your future employers, you will need post-secondary medical coding training. Look for institutes that offer a six-month-long long course for medical coding and billing. However, if you aren’t short on time, then it is advised you get the right education, such as a two-year-long associate degree in the field.
Expansive Knowledge
When thinking about where to learn medical billing and coding, look for a program that isn’t just aiming to train you for a clerical job. That’s because medical coding and billing requires so much more than that! If you want to be considered a specialist in your field, then you should be able to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of medical science. For instance, only if you are well versed in human anatomy and physiology would you be able to differentiate between medical terms. You can’t afford not to know your endocrine hormones from the exocrine ones! Therefore, it is smarter to look for a medical billing certification program that comes with one medical terminology course, if not more. You will need all the help you can get when you have to assign codes to procedures.
Comfortable Using Technology
Most medical billing and coding schools might not focus on making their medical billers and coders tech savvy but the good ones do! Since most of your day will be spent using databases of one kind or the other, you need to be comfortable working with technology. For instance, retrieving patient record nowadays means accessing a healthcare facility’s Electronic Health Records (EHR) software. You will also have to go down the same route for processing of insurance claims and medical bills. Learn how to use coding databases, apps and websites that lead you to the correct codes for a procedure, and billing software used at your workplace.
Public Dealing
Medical coding training online or medical billing training online should be teaching you how to deal with other people in a professional capacity. It is important to keep all line of communication open, whether with the patients who come to see you or the healthcare professionals who have treated them. For that, you must have the skills and a courteous manner that will aid you in communication. It is wrong to assume that as a medical biller, you will be working behind the scene all the time. Even if you do so rarely, you will have to interact with patients, health insurance providers, and healthcare providers. Think of yourself as a bridge that connects the patients with the healthcare system. To play such a role successfully, you will have to be a good conversationalist and listener both!
Medical billing training is suitable for everyone! If you have wondered whether this career is a right fit for you, then you will need the skills mentioned above. If you don’t possess these skills, then too, don’t worry! All you will need is the right training program. With that working in your favor, you will learn how to develop and practice those skills. Once you have mastered them, your success in the health claims industry will be a certainty! Remember, a medical billing and coding professional is as good as the skills they possess!
8 Reasons Studying Medical Billing and Coding Online is Part of the Right Career Path for you
Medical billing certification online provides you a more convenient way into what could prove to be a desirable career path. If you want a career that is related to the healthcare industry, it would be a good pick.Essentially, such a professional’s job involves working behind the scenes in processing and coding of health insurance claims, patient bills, and follow quality assessments. Therefore, you can summarize your job as ensuring accuracy in healthcare billing.
Even so, you might not be sure if you are the right person for this job. Here are some reasons that might convince you:
- Rewarding Work
- Financial Rewards
- Minimal Lifestyle Changes
- Challenge Yourself
- Minimal Supervision
- Increases Possibility of Working from Home
- Increased Demand
- Steady and Secure Job
When you work in healthcare, you know your career saves lives unlike most people with careers in other fields. Doing something meaningful like that comes with a sense of satisfaction that you won’t get with just any job. There are many reasons that make a medical billing and coding specialist so vital to the healthcare industry. In any facility, such a specialist would be aiding in keeping the cost of services down, making sure the patient’s medical histories are available, and working to keep medical mistakes to a minimum. Therefore, you will literally be saving lives!
After you have received your billing coding certification online, you can get employed and start earning. Even if you are an entry level medical coder, you will get better at your jobs as your experience grows and with the skills you acquire. Additional courses can increase the earning potential and help you progress through your career path.
It is time to start thinking where to get medical billing and coding certification because this is a job that comes with immense flexibility. You can work full- or part-time, depending upon your lifestyle. The field of medical billing and coding lets you maintain the lifestyle you are used to. This is especially beneficial for mothers with kids to raise, students, and pet owners. Once you have started working part-time, you can use your spare time to keep exploring other opportunities. Another advantage of being in this profession is that you can work at different hospitals, clinics, etc at the same time. If you have aging parents or other responsibilities to look after, then this is the right choice for you!
With so many good institutions offering courses in this field, it is easy for you to find where can i learn medical billing and coding. What makes this even more of a good career choice is its challenging choice. After you have received your certification, you will soon see each day at work is different. For a medical billing and coding specialist, each case is unique. They must figure out a viable way of making sure the patients fully understand the insurance terminology. Additionally, they also deal with healthcare providers to get the necessary details. For instance, in the U.S., the specialists should be familiar with over 14,000 different codes that are a part of the classification system not to mention the sub-code classification codes. When faced with a procedure for a case, you will have to run down its code. If successful, the search and its results should be gratifying.
Whether you take online classes or study in a classroom, the medical billing and coding curriculum will grant you a career that requires minimal supervision. You will walk out of class having become a professional who can work independently. Your job will involve using electronic databases to keep track of the insurance claims and medical bills. You will be on your own even when you have to look up medical and diagnostic codes. It will be you who enters those codes into the database and begins processing claims. If you like the idea of being responsible for yourself, then this is the right career for you.
If you are interested in working out of your home, then start looking where to learn medical billing and coding immediately! Depending on your employer, many medical billing and coding employees can easily work from home. Just make sure that you have the tools you’d need: a computer, high-speed internet connection, telephone, and a coding manual. If getting up early in the mornings isn’t for you, then you should think of getting a medical billing certification and start working in the field. If you dislike waking up earlier and going into the office, this career path may be a desirable one. Just focus on staying productive during the work day.
With the number of medical billing training online, it is easy to see that medical coders are in demand! A lack of sufficiency in the numbers of medical coders could work in your favor. It is believed that this industry will continue to grow during the next decade and even beyond that. Start looking for the right program and pick up the skills you will need to survive in the medical billing and coding field. It involves acquiring administrative skills, learning more about billing systems, knowing about insurance verification, and maintaining health records.
A career in medical billing and coding can be highly flexible. However, this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t provide you with the stability that comes with other jobs. The hours are steady hours and you can depend on your salary being deposited in your account each month. If that is something that attracts you to a career, then this career is ideal for you. On the other hand, you could also go in early so you get to leave earlier as well. On average, a full-time specialist does the typical 40-hours of work each week. A part-time position would depend on the agreement that you and your employer have.
There are many medical billing and coding schools that offer medical coding training online. However, if you are thinking of turning this into a well paying career, then you need the best program. Do your research and get enrolled today. Your career in medical billing training awaits you!