Medical Billing Forum
Billing => Billing => : subburam December 23, 2010, 03:59:56 AM
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We live in a time where the so called “baby boom” generation is getting to the upper age bracket. In the US alone there are nearly eighty million adults who belong in this age group. Many of them are starting to show signs of old age which means they will start to get all of the inherent problems that come with aging such as illnesses. Another thing is that as the years go by, the medical world is developing new procedures and tests. This in turn means that medical billing and coding is growing in importance, for both, hospitals as well as insurance companies.
Out of all of the different agencies that hire medical billing and coding clerks, the health care industry is perhaps the biggest employer. Other places where coding clerks will work are at federal agencies, insurance companies and various international agencies such as the World Health organization (WHO). Roughly a third billing and coding clerks work from their own houses. This is because many hospitals would rather outsource their work, rather than hire their own staff. Another name for medical billing professionals is Health Information Technicians or HIT’s and this field is poised for big growth.
In order to become a medical billing clerk, the candidate will be required to have at least an associate’s degree. However if the candidate is planning to advance to a management position, he or she will have to specialize their education and get the required qualification. There are many community colleges that offer courses in Medical billing and coding diplomas. Once a person becomes a registered Health Information Technician, salaries can be as high as 60,000 dollars per year. Most of these jobs are located in hospitals. The rest will be in nursing care facilities, outpatient clinics and home health care institutions.
The biggest change to the coding system is going to be the revision of the coding system as we know it today. The current method has 17,000 codes which are based on the World Health Organizations system, started in the late 1970’s. The new system will call for switching to digitalized medical billing and coding system, which is slated to come into effect by 2014. This new system will have early 150,000 codes. Needless to say this new system will be more comprehensive and accurate, compared to the old system. This new system is also called “ICD-10”. What all this means for job seekers in the medical billing and coding field is that there will need to be more staff that is educated in this new system.
In fact demand is going to be so big that, the medical field will need to hire many people from outside, to help with the large task of converting medical billing from the old to the new era.
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Is this what they now refer a Professional Coder, Biller now, a clerk?????????? Also, have to disagree on a certified professional coder or biller having (required) to have an associates degree as if this were the case then there would be no such thing as certificate/diploma courses in this field. Normal requirment is high school diploma wioth 0-2 years of experience. Many of staff that I have promoted into these positions had no college degrees and are now very far into their healthcare field. The degrees will come into play in higher level positions
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I agree with Onearound about the degrees. Perhaps a higher degree is required for competitive purposes but if the field is going to require more coders, then that usually means that a certification and experience is plenty.
Also, it would be better if you reference the official source of all this information that you are posting.
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Is this what they now refer a Professional Coder, Biller now, a clerk?HuhHuhHuh
Ugh, I'd have to agree, what an insult. the title I prefer is PRACTICE MANAGER, I even hate using the term "medical biller"
Also, have to disagree on a certified professional coder or biller having (required) to have an associates degree as if this were the case then there would be no such thing as certificate/diploma courses in this field. Normal requirment is high school diploma wioth 0-2 years of experience. Many of staff that I have promoted into these positions had no college degrees and are now very far into their healthcare field. The degrees will come into play in higher level positions
I might hit some nerves here, but I would LIKE to see our industry reach a standard where an Associates degree was required. I'd like to see more states require either registration or certification.