In a hospital, it is normal for the billing and coding functions to be handled by a professional Medical Biller and a professional Medical Coder. Meanwhile, one can be both the Medical Biller and Medical Coder in the office of the doctor.
There have been a lot of speculations about Medical Billing and Medical Coding. Some are true while some others are not. Which ones are true? Here is the list of the truth about the Medical Billing and Coding:
- Medical Billing and Medical Coding are two different things: People tend to use the terms Medical Billing and Coding together and an individual can be both a biller and a coder. Even though these two always together, in fact, they are not the same and they are two different things. The term Medical Billing is used to call a process in which claims are submitted to insurance companies in order to get payment for services provided by a doctor or another healthcare provider. Meanwhile, Medical Coding refers to a process in which codes are assigned to the descriptions of the condition of the patient as well as the healthcare services provided to the patient to treat and or care for that condition.
- Medical Coders are important in the health industry: Everyone knows that documenting the history of the patient is important. Aside from communicating the right information to the insurance companies, they will make sure that the providers have the full image when they are trying to piece a diagnosis together, which is effective to save lives.
- Billers and Coders must be good problem solvers: Medical Billers and Medical Coders are not limited into the paper pushers that their worlds involve around an administrative setting within a healthcare facility. They have some other duties. It is also a must for them to be an expert of problem solving. The reason is because they are required to act autonomously and work with the other ones, including the patients, the healthcare providers, and the insurance companies to quickly handle the bills that have to be paid.
- The system of the Medical Coding is huge: In fact, there are thousands of medical codes that are used by both Medical Billers and Medical Coders to process patient claims. For those who have no idea, these kinds of codes are designed for diseases, illnesses, signs and symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and some different kinds of external causes of disease or injury out there today. Since there are so many of them, it is kind of impossible for the Medical Biller and Medical Coder to memorize all of them. In order to aid in this tracking, the international coding system used by Billers and Coders known as ICD-10 was replaced by ICD-9 last October.
- There are two variations of Medical Billing: Do you know the fact that the Medical Billing is not a one size fits all process? Actually, the medical billing is divided into two. The first one is Professional Billing and the second one is Institutional Billing.
- Medical Billing and Medical Coding jobs and career outlook: Being a medical biller and a medical coder can be both rewarding and challenging. It is needed for billers and coders to work in some different kinds of healthcare settings. In addition to working in the offices of the doctors, they are also able to work in hospitals, physician offices, nursing care facilities, healthcare consulting firms, insurance companies, law firms, government agencies (the National Center for Health Statistics, State Medicaid departments, and so on), and some other healthcare facilities.
- Hospitals usually pay the Medical Billers and Medical Coders more.
- A career as a Medical Coder can offer flexibility: While it has been known that a lot of Medical Billing and Coding jobs are traditional in nature, there are a lot of chances for non-traditional, and in some cases, they can even work from home arrangements.
- The International Classification of Diseases or ICD-10 index is used by the Medical Coders: According to the WHO or World Health Organization, ICD refers to the universe of diseases, disorders, injuries, and the other conditions related to health, that is listed in a comprehensive and hierarchical fashion that allows for a few things such as easy storage, retrieval, and analysis of health information for the decision making that is based on evident; sharing and comparing the health information between regions, hospitals, settings, and countries; and the data comparisons in the same location access the different time periods.
- The demand for Electronic Medical Billing and Medical Coding professionals is growing
- The annual median salary for a health records professionals is $40.350, the top 10% gain more than $66,260.
- New York has one of the highest employment levels for Medical Billing professionals. Meanwhile, New Jersey has the highest average annual salary in the United States.
- There is no need for you to get a college degree to be a Medical Biller and Coder.
- The Medical Billers and Medical Coders need to be a detail-oriented people: The job as Medical Biller and Medical Coder requires you to deal with assigning procedure codes and diagnosis codes to the records of the patients to make the insurance companies make their reimbursements. Accuracy is the key. It is clear that someone who pays attention to detail is needed. In addition, they also have to be good at catching errors if there are any, as well as having a critical eye for accuracy.
- The Medical Billers and Medical Coders have to be comfortable with long hours in front of the computer: If you are the type of an active person, a chance that this career is not for you is high. Being the Medical Billers and Medical Coders means spending hours working seated in front of a computer. When you have tons of list to do, concentration and the ability to stay focused in front of the computer are needed.
