medical coding

How to Love Your Job As A Medical Coder

Your job as an ICD-10 medical coder means a lot to thousands of people all over the world. Did you know that people in general want to feel like they are succeeding? When it comes to billing, many companies feel like they are losing the war in terms of billing. Billing often makes people feel like they can never win against insurance companies. Insurance companies seem to control everything in healthcare these days. Without reimbursements from the healthcare insurance companies, a hospital will go bankrupt… There are so many regulations that take place every single day when it comes to healthcare. For starters, healthcare companies often say that they want to help people to succeed. However, a lot of people think that they cannot succeed because hiring an ICD-10 coder is too expensive. However, it is not that expensive if you think about it. Many physicians are finding it rather easy to outsource.  Outsourcing is a lot easier than it used to be. Outsourcing today has a lot to do with someone looking at their company and asking themselves what is most important. In my opinion, it is important to ask yourself what matters the most on a day to day basis. What are you trying to accomplish and why.  Many people think that there is a new beginning taking place in healthcare. I can honestly say that many new tactics are being given to companies that choose to learn more about their healthcare.  Healthcare in the United States is growing. Many treatment centers are seeing a negative impact on insurance.  Many people that want treatment cannot get it…

Medical Coding For The Future: How To Plan Ahead

It is important for healthcare providers to plan ahead when it comes to their medical billing and coding. Today, coding is more complex than it was a year ago.  Many coders today find that taking classes in coding help them to become a better expert. Did you know that ICD-10 has over 100,000 codes that a person must become familiar with? Over time, you will see that these codes are not always easy to understand. Many schools recommend that a medical biller understands anatomy and physiology. Most associate and bachelor degree programs will have these courses as part of their program. It is important to know a lot about coding today because it will mean an acceptance or denial for your claim.  A woman by the name of Mandy had her own healthcare facility. She was an MD and enjoyed her job.  She didn’t know much about medical billing. However, she was too busy to hire someone to do it for her.  Instead, she decided to work on the billing herself. Within a couple of years, she had to close her practice because she could not earn enough revenue to support the business. Today, being a medical doctor also means having a good business plan. It is great that you know about medicine and health. However, can you afford to keep your doors open? As we all know, money makes the world go around. If you don’t have enough to keep a business afloat, you will most likely have to work for someone else. Most doctors like having their own practices. It offers you more freedom and job security….

Medical Coding: The Truth About Outpatient And Inpatient

If you work in the medical billing and coding field, you should hold your head high.  Did you know that you are the link between healthcare practitioners and insurance companies? You are the middle man that will either break or make your practice a success.  The physicians are counting on you to do a good job on getting higher returns on your claims.  If too many claims come back unpaid, your business could close down or go bankrupt. If you don’t know anything about medical coding, here are some facts that you should become familiar with: Medical coders look up the proper codes for diagnosis, clinical procedures and treatments. Medical billers take over after the coder is finished looking up the codes and then use the codes to bill health insurance companies, patients directly and government agencies. Incorrect codes will cause your claims to be rejected. ICD-10 certified coders must comply with HIPAA laws. Medical Billing Software Must Be HIPAA compliant. If you are thinking about a career in coding, you should think about whether or not you want to work in outpatient or inpatient billing.  You may ask, “Can’t I do both?”  You can, but in today’s complex world, you will most likely not be an expert. It takes expert skills in order to learn how to code correctly for both inpatient and outpatient coding. Let me explain the two.  If you choose to do outpatient medical coding, you will be doing the medical charts for patients that are discharged from the medical establishment within 24 hours.  This type of coding is usually used for doctors’ offices, emergency…

All We Are Saying Is Give Us A Chance

Owning a medical billing and coding company today means you might be experiencing a talent shortage of people who are adept at the new ICD-10 codes. Complete understanding will happen eventually as the new system becomes widely used in the U.S., whereas the rest of the world has been using it since 1994. For companies that need this kind of experience now, it is good to know that current students in medical billing and coding schools have had this training already and are ready and willing to get started for you today.   At the end of last year, many experts in the medical billing and coding field expected a shortage of individuals with this training. So if a shortage of qualified candidates should happen to you, an ICD-10 ready individual recently graduated from a reputable program could be just what you need to get you over the rough spots, help your employees learn the changes and after a while, be able to take over a full time position with your company.   Perhaps your company has already lost productivity with your current coders as they are all still learning the new codes. By creating your own team, you’ll be able to have them learn the way your company does business so that they will be ready to move into new slots as you require them.   You could always send these jobs offshore, but would probably have to do a lot of checking up and following up to make sure you are getting the results you want. It may be a lot less to worry about if you…

Ways To Avoid Insurance Claim Denials

Medical billing and coding is a very tedious, detail oriented, and time consuming process. Even those who are specialized in medical billing can make simple mistakes that cause claims denials if they are not thorough. With that being said, it is important to have detailed notes and processes while doing medical billing in order to avoid denials and get your reimbursements more quickly. A major delay in getting reimbursements from insurance companies is incorrectly submitted insurance claims. Claims can be considered incorrect for a number of reasons. Often times, insurance claims are submitted after the submission deadline, which is instant grounds for denial, they end up not being as specific as they should be, they are illegible, or they are missing information. All of these issues can be avoided with a more thorough process. It is important to be aware of all aspects of your medical billing and have efficient processes to help you avoid mistakes that can be cause for denials. If you are keeping detailed notes on every account, specifying all information to the greatest extent possible, and keeping track of all submission deadlines, you are instantly decreasing the likelihood of denials. Another way to avoid denials is to examine past denials, and be aware of the problems or issues that may have occurred in the past to better avoid them in the future. It is important to keep detailed reports of all aspects of your billing so that you can look over your reports regularly and be more aware of what is happening in the department, and why it may be happening. The best way to…

Demand Grows For Medical Billing And Coding

The field of medical billing and medical coding is experiencing a 22% increase in the number of jobs available through the year 2022 according to projections made by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. How many job categories can say that these days?   For the sake of clarity, these two jobs are often spoken of together, but they are actually two separate disciplines. You can become a medical biller and not have a college degree or a certification. Medical coders however are required to have a certificate, obtained by completing training and taking an exam which can be done online or in a classroom, as long as it is authorized by the American Association of Professional Coders. Coders are required to study anatomy and physiology among many other topics, in order to be able to demonstrate an understanding of the codes they will be working with in their profession.   Currently, the shortage of qualified candidates for these positions is the main reason their salaries are on the increase. These salaries should stabilize though once market demand is met and more people train for these positions. There are several reasons why demand is on the upswing, namely the graying of the country’s population, and the introduction last October of ICD-10, the new international medical billing codes. Considering that the new codes now number 70,000, up from 17,000, it is quite possible that some currently employed as medical coders will leave their positions for another line of work, or retire, not wishing to learn the new system. This change will require new employees to enter the field to replace…