For anyone who is earnestly seeking out a new career field to move into, or someone who is just now graduating from high school and looking for a future career path, they should consider a medical billing career. Medical billing and coding is a field which is growing faster than the overall health care industry, which proves to be among the fastest growing industries in the United States. In order to join the highly in-demand field of medical billing, a number of different types of classes will be helpful to vault the candidate into an entry level position in the field.
The good news is that it does not take years of training to break into this career field. A great number of accredited and well respected vocational schools, colleges, and universities provide short term forms of training in medical coding and billing. The majority of such medical coding and billing schools feature diploma providing programs which can be easily completed within from nine to twelve months of study. Some of them will permit the students to earn their diploma in as little as six short months. A number of these schools’ programs also showcase both evening and day classes, some of them offered entirely online. This translates to the candidate’s ability to continue or begin working a full time job all the while that he or she is obtaining the education and training that is necessary around his or her schedule. Below follow some of the subjects and classes which will be offered in any decent accredited medical coding and billing program.
Government Programs
Medical billing classes will include thorough training on the various government programs and the ways in which they pertain to medical coding and billing activities. Such a course will provide the student the chance to practice the processing of such medical claims as those done for Medicaid, Medicare, and TRICARE. This class yields a comprehension of the major responsibilities of a medical coding and billing specialist, as well as a better comprehension of the main medical terms used in the field.
Medical Insurance and Managed Care
Medical insurance is perhaps the most important class to be featured in such a medical billing career training program. Expert medical coders must be well acquainted with all kinds of medical insurance. The student will learn about HMO’s, or Health Maintenance Organizations. He or she will also be taught how to interpret and comprehend doctors’ notes and patients’ charts, along with the knowledge of getting the right CPT and ICD-9 codes.
Medical Management, Documentation, and Evaluation
These classes will teach the students of medical billing how to evaluate medical documents. It will include instruction on the language inherent in a typical invoice. This course will furthermore teach techniques for following accounts which are past due and how they can be collected. The students will also learn about the laws governing workers’ compensation.
Electronic Data Modifiers and Interchange
This course teaches students the necessary skills for processing electronic interchange and data exchange. It gives them real life practice working on various computer claims’ systems. The course also offers students the ability to utilize electronic data interchange in conjunction with a outside clearinghouse for claims.
Health Insurance Claim Forms
Students learning medical billing will have to take coursework on the varieties of forms for health insurance claims. This class will train students to fill in and process heavily utilized insurance forms such as the UB-92 and the CMS-1500. All expert medical coders and billers will need competence in completing these forms.
Internships or Externships
A critically necessary component of any program in medical billing is the ability to attain hands on experience in working an externship. These permit the student to go work in a real medical claims billing office. This could offer the student a job recommendation when he or she is starting to look for the entry level position. Although medical billing programs can never guarantee a job after graduation, they can set up a good internship or externship, which will put the student on the road to an entry level job.