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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
   
Location: Phoenix | Anyone here do medical billing and coding? Do you like it? If you could do it all over again would you? Do you remember the cost of your education? Are you able to work romotely? I guess this is my next possible educational pursuit and I'm curious.....thanks in advance for any and all info! |
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 Banned by Booger
Posts: 2168
Location: Huffman, Texas | I dont do the billing or coding however i did medical transcription for 40 years, most of it has all gone to voice recognition..putting us out of business..i thought of taking a billing and coding course however, when you look at the job market, its flooded....and if where u get ur training they tell u that u need to buy the software, or u find a company that will hire you as entry level, RUN, as fast as u can!! Companies will set u up with their software. Good luck :-) |
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Doggy Diaper Designer
Posts: 2322
Location: WI | I'm a coder. Took a year course for like 2-3k ish. I like it but I do way more then code. Long and short. I've coded several specialities. I worked at major hospital/ clinic for seven years and then recently a surgeon I used to work with recruited me. I'm now their assistant amin, hr person and coder. I do alot and have proved myself time again. I make darn good money for a one year program. With icd 10 coming there will be increased need for coders |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | The programs I'm looking at are like $13000 at a community college!!! That's why I'm a little turned off....especially if the market is as flooded as they say. :/
But I figure it would be good to know if I worked at a doctors/medical office or something. I dunno. |
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Veteran
Posts: 291
| I have been told there is no longer a market for them. They told me to not waste my money! |
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Banned by Booger
Posts: 2168
Location: Huffman, Texas | wow!! talk to Stef here and see where she took her course!! 13K is not acceptable!!!! |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | I work in a hospital. Our stuff all auto bills. I think software will an has eliminated many jobs from this area. I wouldn't spend the money. |
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  More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | river runner - 2014-04-24 6:11 AM I have been told there is no longer a market for them. They told me to not waste my money!
My neighbor gal works out of her home doing medical coding. I'll have to ask her where she went to school and if she thinks its worth it. She can set her own hours which would be a plus but I've noticed she sets herself with normal business hours and takes her little boy to a daycare during the day so she can get her work done. |
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Veteran
Posts: 103
| I work on a Medicare contract where we update the programs as mandated by CMS and have been told that the ICD 10 transition has been put off until at least October 2015 and maybe beyond. We have a lot of providers not happy after. like we have done, spent the last 2 or 3 yrs. preparing for the conversion. So now we are working on putting the system back like it was and take out everything we'd put in to accept ICD 10. There's your government dollars at work! |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Yeah $13k is a steep. I saw another for $28k! Ridiculous. My mother-in-law codes from home and doesn't deal with people and I would just LOVE if I could do that. Here in AZ there seem to be quite a few job opportunities but you need the 2 years experience to even be eligible.
I just figured if I moved back to a small town, I'd be a lot more marketable if I had coding or at least billing experience. |
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| I managed my husbands urology clinic for 15 years. Did all the billing, software upgrades, coding updates... With the ICD10 being put on hold,and the "Unaffordable HealthCare Act" being such a mess, the LAST thing I would spend my money on right now is learning coding. Everything you learn could be totally worthless even before you graduate. There are WAY too many unknowns, and moving parts right now in the health care business. I am holding back from even getting a job, as I don't know that I WANT to work for our government as a nurse. I would much rather work as a private sector employee or self employed. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 399
| I am taking it right now in addition to my bachelors because there are alot of work from home jobs. Also alot of the hospitals around here want you to have a bachelors in heatlhcare and knowledge of the coding industry. Will it benefit me I am not sure at this time but with my degree in Healthcare administration they wanted me to have some knowledge of it. So the easiest way was to get a certification in it which was MUCh cheaper than an actual degree in it. |
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Member
Posts: 29
| I am currently going to school for something like this. Go for it! With ICD 10 coming out around when you graduate you'd be a step ahead, and from what I hear there are many older people who are not willing to learn a new system so they will be retiring / quitting. |
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | stef73433 - 2014-04-23 9:31 PM I'm a coder. Took a year course for like 2-3k ish. I like it but I do way more then code. Long and short. I've coded several specialities. I worked at major hospital/ clinic for seven years and then recently a surgeon I used to work with recruited me. I'm now their assistant amin, hr person and coder. I do alot and have proved myself time again. I make darn good money for a one year program. With icd 10 coming there will be increased need for coders
With all the changes coming down the pike, not just with ICD 10 but other changes, there is most definitely going to be a need for Certified Coders.
I've worked appealing Orthopedic claims for 10+ years now and moved into contract appeals too and have been deeply involved in the software implementations as well. We have several coders on staff that review coding on our charges prior to them going out the door. We're currently implementing EHR where the doc scrolls down and chooses the code he wants but there is still a need for someone to double check what the doc chooses and we have reporting that we run on certain things as well. That will never change because no software is going to catch everything and no doctor is going to be 100% all the time.
We also have Surgery coders that review and approve the surgery charges as well prior to billing to make sure the coding is appropriate there.
One of our main coders sends out the medical records requests and handles our audits. She's irreplaceable! She manually reviews the documentation prior to sending it to the insurance to make sure that what we're billing for is dictated and that's criticial especially when you're sending records to Medicare. She catches things that the doctors need to work on and reviews a lot of our denials as well.
In appealing claims, it would be valuable if I had my certification. I know a lot just because of experience and I ask one of our coders if I'm not sure, but I could be even more efficient if I was a coder. Plus, I'd make even more money.
Plus, Medicare requires that every office have a certified coder.
Bottom line, it's not going away and yes, it's a good field to be in and there's a lot of different avenues you can work towards once you're in a healthcare organization. And yes, the pay is not bad at all!
The down side.... things are constantly changing and compliance requirements are constantly changing so you're always learning. |
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