If you’re looking into a career as a medical biller and coder, you’ve probably already investigated the pros and cons of this type of job. Medical billers and coders help encode patient diagnoses, treatments, and procedures in alphanumeric codes, used to prepare insurance reimbursement claims. That sounds a little complicated, but not too intimidating, right? There are certainly aspects of this career that aren’t as obvious at first glance, so let’s talk about those. These are some of the biggest things you probably didn’t know about working as a medical biller and coder.
Employers Will Test Your Competence
Before you get a job offer, employers will give you assessment tests to make sure you are competent and confident enough to do the job correctly. Medical billing and coding has a lot of nuance and you must understand what you are doing. The consequences of hiring an unqualified candidate are extremely high for medical providers. The billers and coders cannot upcode, downcode, or be otherwise non-compliant, because that can result in loss of revenue, or fines and penalties.
Billers and Coders Are Constantly Learning
When you work as a medical biller and coder, you’ll most likely find you’re curious about other parts of healthcare services. What is that clinical procedure, and why do patients need it? How do treatments help a patient? The more you learn about procedures and treatments, the better you’ll be at procedural coding. You’ll become curious about the profession of healthcare and not just medical coding and billing. Finding out how patients are diagnosed, and why physicians need to do certain procedures will give you extra knowledge that give you a better understanding of billing and coding.
Communication is Important
As a medical biller and coder, you have to be able to talk to healthcare providers, insurance payers, other medical coders and billers. Many times you’ll have to get clarification on a procedure, or an issue on a claim. You can’t take things personally when there is an issue with a reimbursement claim, and you must be good at solving problems. Professional communication and being able to talk to different types of people in the healthcare field will help you immensely in this career.
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The Way to Get More Money is Accuracy
Certifications can help, but the thing employers look for is accurate medical coding. An accurate medical coder is valuable, because they are less risk to the medical provider. A biller and coder with high accuracy means claims are less likely to be adjusted or denied, and they will always add the required documentation to prevent claim denials.
Experience is Necessary Before Getting More Credentials
Time and hands-on experience is the most important thing to focus on once you start working as a biller and coder. Learning medical codes is like learning another language, and you have to learn when to use them correctly. This job has a lot of nuance and subtlety, and insurance payers have their own internal rules and systems. You won’t learn all of that in a book or a class. Before you rack up a bunch of specialty credentials in your first two or three years, go through the work, and learn how the medical billing and coding systems work in practice, then go for extra certs. Employers are always looking for coders with lots of experience, because they have learned how to navigate the system of medical coding and reimbursement claims. You’ll be more valuable to your medical providers by focusing on learning from practical experience in your first couple of years of work.
Some Specialties Pay Higher Than Others
When you first start in medical coding and billing, you’ll be gaining valuable experience. Of course, everyone wants to earn up to their potential. It might surprise you to learn that different settings and different specialties can pay higher or lower. This will vary depending on your location and local market factors, but billing and coding for a hospital may be more lucrative than for private practice medical offices. Specialties such as oncology will generally pay more than general practice. Other specialties such as cardiology can also pay more than other more basic specialties. Do the research on your local market and figure out what your long term goals are as a biller and coder.
Medical Coding and Medical Billing Isn’t the Easiest
Medical billing and coding isn’t the most difficult job, but it is far from the easiest. It is not as easy as plugging in the codes to a claim form and submitting it. The coding system and scrubbing reimbursement claim forms is not something you can do on auto-pilot. It is a skillset that requires knowledge of procedures and also inside knowledge of insurance payer policies. Selecting the correct codes for a given procedure, navigating the claim submission process, these are things that require insight and focus. If you are focused on continual learning and improvement, have good organizational skills, and excel at interpersonal communication, this can be a great career for you.
You Can Become a Medical Biller and Coder at Campus Sacramento
If you’ve been thinking about starting a career in healthcare, Campus Sacramento has an Online Medical Billing and Coding program to help you get trained and certified. In less than ten months, you’ll be ready to begin your career as a professional biller and coder, helping support medical offices. For more information on start dates, program curriculum, and financial aid, contact our helpful Admissions team or call us at 888-675-2460.