Medical Coding and Billing
Medical Front Office Careers

Are you searching for the formula to success? Then consider combining these ingredients for a career with tremendous potential—healthcare and information technology. If you are looking for a career where you can realize your full potential consider the Health Information Management (HIM) area of the medical industry. With the number of healthcare procedures escalating every year as the population ages, there is a very high demand for skilled specialists in patient information technology and medical billing and reimbursement. As an HIM professional, you are the expert on patient data that doctors, nurses, and other providers rely on to perform their jobs. By maintaining, collecting, and analyzing health information, your work makes an important contribution to the delivery of quality care. HIM professionals can expect to be in high demand as the health sector over into the next twenty to thirty years. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics cites health information technology as one of the 20 fastest growing occupations in the U.S.

The medical field is divided into two distinct areas. The “front office” personnel work with patient records, insurance billing, computerized accounting, patient databases, transcription of dictated notes, and applying standardized codes to patient records among other activities. “Back office” personnel are the care providers including physicians, nursing personnel, and a variety of assistant titles. While many career bound individuals have heard of Medical Assisting, it pays to explore all of the avenues available in the medical career field. Front office skills allow you to work in a medical facility without direct patient contact.

Employment Opportunities
There is a great difference in the career opportunities for individuals who have front office and back office job skills. Back office individuals such as medical assistants or nursing assistants usually work only in a clinic or medical practice environment. Their employment opportunities are usually restricted to the openings available in the local direct patient care market. In some cases they might find employment in patient care nursing homes where shift work may be available. Advancement is usually based only upon seniority on the job since skill sets are not advanced without additional training.

Individuals with health information management skills such as billing and coding skills may be employed in a wide variety of locations. Since patient record coding and insurance billing affects every medical institution, persons with these skill sets are widely desirable. Employment may be in private practices, multi-practice clinics, diagnostic imaging firms, medical laboratories, hospitals, and contracting companies that provide billing, coding and medical records handling services to medical institutions. Because medical invoices and claims arrive at insurance companies for payment, skilled medical coding and billing personnel are required to analyze and process these claims at insurance companies. The career opportunities are significantly broader for those individuals with medical records coding and billing training.

HIM professionals enjoy a broad selection of job opportunities and options for professional growth. Based on your skills, education, and interests, here are some long-term goal positions available to you:

• HIM Department Director • HIM System Manager • Data Quality Manager • Chief Privacy Officer

• HIM College Instructor • Consultant • Health Data Analyst • Insurance Claims Analyst

• Records Technician Specialist • Clinical Coding Specialist • Physician Practice Manager • Patient Information Coordinator

The advancement opportunities are great for individuals that start with a medical records coding and billing foundation. Not only are these persons promoted due to length of experience, but they may be advanced or employed based upon an area of expertise or specialty. The diverse job titles in this area include Coding Specialist, Claim Reviewer, Medical Records Supervisor, Medical Office Manager, Coding/Reimbursement Manager, Compliance Training Specialist, Insurance Billing Specialist, Coding Consultant, Coding Trainer and Coding/Insurance Billing Consultant, just to name a few. Management, supervisory, and training positions are always available to those who qualify. American Health Information Management Association statistics indicate that job positions such as those listed above typically range in pay from $30,000 to $65,000 (and up to more than $100,000 for senior personnel).

Training and Career Preparation
The most comprehensive and timely training available in the HIM area is usually available at a career training school. A career training school offers you hands-on classroom training with highly qualified and experienced instructors. While in this educational setting you can expect small classes with excellent one on one contact with instructors. Extra tutoring and guaranteed retake of any class should be the norm. When looking into a career training school ask to audit a class or two for a few hours or a day. Of course, you will be joining in the middle of a lesson, but your goal is to talk with current students and the instructor. Find out their feelings toward their instruction and the school. If you sense a school does not want you to speak with current students, be careful.

The course of instruction for billing and coding specialists involves a wide variety of class subjects. These subjects should include general office skills including word processing, spreadsheets, and orientation to databases. Other areas of business communication, medical math, and computerized accounting techniques are also required. You’ll also need medical terminology, human anatomy and physiology as a foundation to working in the medical field. The skills of medical records coding involves training in the ICD-9 and CPT coding systems as well as other standard systems. Medical law and ethics training along with patient information privacy (HIPPA) regulations are necessary. Insurance billing, forms, and procedures training are required. And, personal development classes in such areas as professional dress, interview skills, resume development, and activities in a professional medical environment are required. Finally, students should receive an opportunity to train alongside persons actually performing these tasks is very important. You should expect to serve an “externship” in an actual medical facility during your training.

Professional Certification
Certification in the medical industry is very important. It forms the basis of the recognition of your skill sets and provides evidence of your expertise. Although it is possible to work in the industry at entry-level positions without certification, certifications provide the proof that you have attained an ample understanding of your career area. Both the American Health Information Management Association and the American Association of Professional Coders provide certification examinations. These certifications are recognized throughout the healthcare industry and across the country regardless of which school you attend. A good medical training trade school should assist you in preparation for these certification examinations.

Job Placement
Although job skills training is essential for success in the medical profession, you will also need job placement assistance from your training institution. The medical industry is eager for applicants, but they are still very interested in that word “experience.” Many graduates require professional job placement assistance to break into the medical job market. This is more than just handing you an address like a placement agency might. You need professional introductions to hiring managers who are familiar with the scope and quality of training you received from the career training school. Seek out a school with an outstanding record of medical job placements, possibly a school that has received awards for their placement activities.

As a trained Health Information Management professional, you belong to a select group of professionals who specialize in managing patient health information. As a professional, you can expect a life-long career in a stable, rapidly growing field with ample rewards. Not only will you gain financially, but you will be involved in providing a very necessary service to the clients and patients in the medical community. You will be providing a service to your employer and their patients.

Seek out a good career-training school and take the next steps toward a rewarding career in Medical Coding and Billing and Health Information Management.

Editorial provided by Buzz Murphy, Sales and Marketing Manager, CCI Training Center, Arlington – Dallas.