The medical billing and coding career outlook holds a lot of potential. Here’s what you should know about becoming a medical billing and coding specialist.

What does a medical biller do? That’s the question you should ask yourself before choosing this career. Becoming a medical billing and coding specialists involves you creating billing records and precise services.

A medical biller ensures that you keep a very detailed record of all health care services that are given to the patient. Also, you need to translate all the records into codes to reflect the patient’s tests, treatments, and medical history.

It’s estimated that about 200 million claims are denied every year. Around 9% or $262 billion worth of medical claims were rejected in 2016. Claims are rejected because of errors or omissions like lack of details, duplicate claims, and time expiry.

A medical billing and coding specialist will be able to minimize errors and omissions and follow up an insurance company to cover the medical bills. This reduces the chances of a claim being rejected.

Here is what you should know about becoming a medical billing and coding specialist.

How to Become a Medical Coder and Biller

First of all, you need a high school diploma. It would also greatly help if you had an associate degree. You also need on-job training before you are certified.

Get Your High School Diploma

The first thing you need to do is to get your high school diploma. This will ensure that you stand a chance to become a medical biller and coder.

Additionally, to get high chances of being a medical billing and coding specialist, you need to take classes in medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, biology, office operations, and information technology.

Ensure that you get enough experience and take advantage of work placement in medical centers.

Obtain an Associate Degree

Although there are no formal education requirements to secure this job, it will never hurt you to have additional education. You can enroll in a community or technical college in your area.

You can look for an associate degree or certificate program that will add to your resume. You can choose to do a course in chemistry, biology, maths and computer science.

The skills you learn in the community college will help you have the skills and knowledge to do the job. Additionally, this will help you have high chances of getting the job.

Train on the Job

Having good grades and additional certificates don’t prove that you can work as a billing and coding specialist. You need to get an on the job training to show that you can do your job correctly.

Most employers have on the job training program for the new employees. This provides them with a perfect time to assess you and knows your skills. They look at your mastery of the nationally recognized coding and billing standards.

The government has developed these standards for business and health care services. Hence you should be able to apply these rules to your job.

Ensure That You Are Certified

Being certified is not a medical billing and coding requirement, but it increases your chances of securing a well-paying position. If you want to stand out and get high chances of securing the job, then get certified.

There are a few bodies responsible for certification. You can be certified by the American Academy of professional coders (AAPC), the American medical billing association (AMBA), and the American health information management association (AHMA).

Ensure that the body that gives you the certificate is credible. Your employer will be impressed when they learn that you voluntarily got certified.

Look for Opportunities to Advance Your Career

When you get the billing and coding job, don’t settle on the front desk. Look for other ways to advance in your field. You can try taking additional courses to put you at a distinct level from your co-workers.

Be aggressive to get enough experience and advance in your career. Look for opportunities to get promoted to high positions.

Always remember that any promotion comes with added responsibility. Step up and show them that you can be responsible enough. When you show that you are accountable and can take up more responsibilities, you can be promoted to office manager or supervisor.

Reason to Become a Medical Billing and Coding Specialist

The greatest advantage to becoming a medical billing and coding specialist is that you don’t need to go to medical school. All you need is a high school diploma.

You Don’t Have to Go to Medical School

If you love working in the medical field and you don’t want to take a lot of time in school, not to mention the high cost of medical school. You can get into the medical billing and coding specialist career.

You don’t need to spend a lot of time as a medical student and getting a residence. Medical school is expensive and will leave you with high student loans. You can avoid all this and still get to work in the medical field.

You Get to Save Lives Too

When you think of saving lives in the hospital, you rarely think of the coding and billing specialist. The truth is a billing and coding specialist role is vital in the health care industry.

Have you ever thought of how much damage a medical error can do? If a patient were to receive the wrong treatment, the hospital would turn chaotic.

For this reason, medical billing and coding specialists are critical. They ensure that the data is entered promptly and correctly. This ensures that minimal errors are occurring in the hospital.

You Get to Work in a Field That Evolves Fast

The health care industry is one of the fastest growing career fields you can get into. This is because there are improvement and advancement of medicine all around the world.

The medical billing and coding specialists find themselves in the middle of this evolution since there is a need to improve the technology and the legislation. There is a need to improve the way the patient’s medical records are used and shared.

This change makes the billing and coding work environment evolve at a fast rate.

You Can Work from Home and Dress Comfortably at Work

Nobody likes dressing in some of the work dressing codes, and you do it because you don’t want to lose your job. Working as a coding specialist allows you to dress comfortably to work.

You don’t need the suits and ties that restrict your movement. You can wear scrubs to work every day and wear comfortable shoes. This gives you the freedom to move comfortably at work.

Moreover, there is the option of working from home since most of the work is done on a computer. This is an advantage if you are a parent and you don’t want to live your kids unattended to. Also, if you would love to skip that commute to work every day, this is a great career option.

Bottom Line

Becoming a medical billing and coding specialist is a fulfilling career. Especially if you love working in the health services industry. You don’t need to go to medical school to access training or get certified. The minimum requirement is a high school diploma.

The medical billing and coding job outlook hold a promising future to anybody who wants to advance in their career. Visit our blog to learn more about the health care industry.