Medical Billing and Coding Career

The new job title could be a medical coder 1. I choose this new title because the medical coder is a health care professional who analyzes the medical records, medical charts and assigns the appropriate codes. Most of the job’s responsibilities of a medical coder are required for the inpatient and the outpatient coder’s jobs. For example, medical coder’s responsibilities are: reading and analyzing patient records, determining the correct codes for patient records, interacting with physicians and assistants to ensure accuracy, using codes to bill insurance providers, and maintaining patient confidentiality and information security. In addition, the minimum required certification of this job is CPC or CCS and RHIT with at least 4 years of experience. Those certifications are given to a Coder who can read and assign correct diagnosis International Classification of Diseases or ICD-10-CM, Current Procedural Terminology or CPT, supply Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System or HCPCS code for a wide variety of clinical cases and services, and read and assign PCS codes. The skills of this job are same as the skills of the

Medical billing and coding specialists usually work in office settings. A computer, a telephone and appropriate documents are all used on a daily basis. Unlike other medical professions, there is little contact with patients. Medical coders work closely with healthcare providers and insurance carriers to gather and provide accurate billing information, but most communication take place in the form of phone conversations and mailings.

In my role with Hygienic Smiles Dental Hygiene Office as an office assistant, I managed and organized charts and files of patients daily, to ensure that all information was accurate and up to date. I can apply this same level of attention to detail to tasks such as preparing income tax returns or even making sure that the copier never runs out of paper. Furthermore, because I highly value the confidentiality of our patients, I maintained professionalism when handling sensitive or personal information belonging to them. Working at Hygienic Smiles also tested my ability to adapt and become capable of learning new software, such as ABELdent Dental Practice Management Software used at the office or Microsoft Excel and Taxprep.

The most important element in becoming a Medical Billing and Coding Specialist is the training and certification need to enter the field and for advancement. You will need a program that provides an understanding of anatomy, physiology and medical terminology. This program should also navigate the three topics: ICD, CPT and HCPCS. These codes help you document the conditions of a patient and describe the procedure performed on the patient. When you have completed your training there are several certifications you can test for. The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) offer certification for the Certified Coding Associate (CCA). You will need AHIMA membership and an exam fee ($199- $299), a high school diploma or

"Medical coding professionals provide a key step in the medical billing process. Every time a patient receives professional health care in a physician’s office, hospital outpatient facility or ambulatory surgical center (ASC), the provider must document the services provided. The medical coder will abstract the information from the documentation, assign the appropriate codes, and create a claim to be paid, whether by a commercial payer, the patient, or CMS." (Aapccom, 2015) It is very important that billing coders have a full understanding of how to properly use medical codes to prevent denial of claims submitted.

-Inpatient coders have certifications allowing them to work exclusively for hospitals or facilities. An expertise in medical record review is a must, along with an up to date status with coding rule changes, regulations and issues for medical coding, reimbursements and compliance under MS-DRG and Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS). Coders should have experience as well as expert knowledge in abstracting information from medical records for ICD-9CM vol. 1-3, specialized payment in MS-DRG and IPPS.

There are many components to a hospital or medical facility. All of them are necessary to have a properly functioning environment. The emergency department of a hospital is a fast paced world. You have to be constantly on your toes and prepared for whatever may come through the doors. There are many people that work in an emergency room to make it run smoothly. Techs, nurses, CNA’s, LVN’s, and doctors all work side by side to help those who are critically injured. Without all these people it would be complete chaos.

This standardized dialect is also pertinent for medical schooling and teaching in addition to clinical research and studies conducted by scholars, scientists, and physicians by providing a valuable foundation for domestic and coast-to-coast operation evaluations. CPT is used to describe doctor’s services, a vast amount of administrative services in addition to operating services executed in medical facilities, treatment care centers, and outpatient divisions. Providing support for clerical duties and functions such as processing medical claims and initiating strategies and procedures for the evaluation of clinical care is another cause of relevance for CPT. The system also meets the need for tracking trends and identifying improvements, plus progression goals and scaling the value of healthcare services received by patients. The CPT coding system provides physicians throughout the United States with a consistent method for classifying and coding clinical procedures which in return provides a more efficient tool for recording and reporting task that were completed. Physicians, scholars and payors, have been dependent upon CPT to interconnect with other fellow associates, patients,

In my paper I will be discussing what medical terminology is, where it came from, and how it is applied to medical assistant careers as well as how it is applied to medical administration careers. I will give examples of the importance of medical terminology and specific examples of where medical careers use medical terminology on a day to day basis. I will also give a brief summary and definition of what medical terminology stands for. After reading my paper you should have a good concept of medical terminology’s importance, use, and why medical terminology is not just applied to medical assisting jobs but also why it is important for medical administration employees to also be familiar and have a good grasp on medical terminology.

Medical auditing shares many of the responsibilities of a coding manager but without the an emphasis on personnel management as is seen in coding management fields.

Launched as a community for curious career seekers, medical coding students, new medical coders, and medical coding rockstars, this blog is for those destined for success. We assume a professional, upbeat, and witty mindset, because I believe the business of medical coding doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it’s quite exciting!

It has only been within the last five years that health information management (HIM) has experienced exponential changes, due to the healthcare reform. The electronic health record (EHR) is connected to health information exchanges and other systems of interoperability. The timely completion of charts, coding and release of information (ROI) has become much more efficient with the electronic record. Traditional HIM functions will just be transformed and will always be an integral part of successful patient care. Professionals must be flexible and willing to adapt and even generate change. As Health Information Technology continues to evolve, so will the roles

Some useful qualities to be successful in this career include: dependability, willingness to learn, self motivation, competence, enthusiasm, responsibility, discretion and team player. Your dependability is crucial for a company to run smoothly, dependability can be just coming to work on time, but more importantly completing your task on time and accurately. Since you will be inputting patients’ information into a computer system for record keeping purposes, it is of the utmost importance to make sure information is keyed in accurately. This information is used by doctors, other health care facilities and for insurance purposes, so it is important that all information is correct, so that business can run smoothly. It is also important that the information is correct, because someone’s life may one day depend on the accuracy of the information. In any job enthusiasm is rather important, if you do not enjoy your job, you do not work

Great post, there are so many important things that come along with learning medical billing and coding. I'm getting a little overwhelmed because there is so much material to cover. When I first started reading about the different coding edits and how to use them I was very confused because it mentioned that every code does not have a MUE or CCI edit. I did find a full list of edits on the CMS website so that could be helpful as well. Since CMS updates the national correct coding policy each January we have to be aware of the changes. The more practice that we get the better we'll understand them. As I was doing my research there were several websites that you could go to that will explain the code edits.This discussion was definitely a challenge

In the field of medical billing and coding are growing much faster and it should be. According to American Academy of Professional Coders survey, the median salary for medical billing and coding is $31,236 a year. Compare to year of 2002, the salary was $23,890. Each year is increase about $2000. Salaries are depend to the type of office and other reason, like education, experience or a certificate of medical billing and coding.