Your best bet with wanting to start a business is to work for a provider. Who knows, they may like you so much they will be your first client! You could do an online course pretty quickly and then you could say "I don't have any experience but I took a course in medical billing".
While understanding the basics of coding is a good thing to know, I don't feel it is necessary to be a CPC if you eventually want to own a billing company. And it is quite expensive to get certified as a coder.
Michele and Kristin thank you again. It seems like the common thread from both of you is to pursue employment with a provider. Can you explain a little why you think this would be better than a billing job with a biller for example? I'm intrigue to hear more of why both of you have said to start with a provider as opposed to a billing company.
Also Kristin you mentioned that being certified in coding is not necessary to owning a billing company. Are you saying obtaining a "certification" is not necessary because coding is something that can be picked up on your own? Or are you saying that most billing companies don't code therefore it's a service not necessary to provide? If the latter then I would like to know what percentage of billing companies provide coding services and which ones don't?
A little bit about myself, I started a chemical formulations company in the past and had a successful exit. I'm now looking to move on to the next chapter of my life. For whatever reason I've always been drawn to the medical billing business even when I was in my 20's. I have lots of family and friends who are doctors so I'm very comfortable speaking and comprehending their language and feel this is something I can be good at.
Good to know that coding can be picked up without a degree or certification. It seems like you really know your stuff. You mentioned that Podiatry is difficult to bill, what other specialities would you say are harder to bill than others?