Did You Know: Medical Billing and Coding Blog is part of a network of blogs that discuss careers in the allied healthcare field.  Check out our friends over at Medical Administrative Assisting Blog.

President Obama won a hard-fought battle last week.  After months of stalled progress and fiercely partisan debate, the House passed a sweeping health care reform bill with a vote of 219-212.  The $940 billion plan will completely reorganize the American medical system, extending coverage to roughly 32 million additional Americans.

There is coverage of this bill from every major news organization: CNN, NPR, and New York Times to name a few.  The topic is also being discussed across Twitter and the blogosphere.

So how exactly does the bill affect people working in the allied healthcare field?  Whether you agree or disagree with Obama’s policies, it is important to know how they affect you as a medical biller and coder.

1. The bill increases coverage to 32 million additional Americans by requiring most Americans and businesses to have some kind of insurance plan or pay a fine.
2. Parents will be allowed to keep their children on their health care plans until they are 26.
3. Reform will eliminate discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or medical history.  If an individual hasn’t been able to get coverage because of a pre-existing condition, a ban on discrimination for adults will take effect in 2014. Additionally, a pool will be set up for high risk adults to get coverage until 2014. For those of you who have a child with a pre-existing condition, a ban on discrimination for children will take effect immediately.

External sources:  HealthReform.gov, New York Times Health Care Reform Overview

Prediction: All of these provisions, combined with the billions going to electronic health records, predict an increased need for billing and coding specialists in doctors’ offices.  The sudden spike in the number of patients seeking care combined with rapidly changing electronic health records systems could mean more jobs in the allied healthcare field.

If you are thinking about taking a course in Medical Billing and Coding or are already in a course or working in the field, then you should be thinking about becoming a Certified Professional Coder with the American Academy of Professional Coders.

Certifications allow medical billers and coders to validate their knowledge and expertise in various medical environments. It will also help you earn approximately 20% more than non-credentialed coders, according to the American Academy of Professional Coders.

These credentials are nationally recognized by employers, physician societies and government organizations.

Being credentialed may also give you and your employer more confidence in your ability to capture lost revenue for the payment risk and protect their practice from unfavorable audits.

As a credentialed billing and coder, doors may open up for you faster in:

•  Physician offices or groups

•  Hospital-associated physician offices or groups

•  Health system-associated physician offices or groups

•  Home health agencies

• Physician groups at a university and or in a teaching setting

•  Compliance auditors or forensic auditors of physician claims

•  Physician billing services

•  Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC)

•  Outpatient hospital services not reimbursed by Ambulatory Patient Category (APCs) groups

•  If you are a consultant, educator, legal counsel, physician or other care-giver seeking a credential to demonstrate your command of outpatient medical billing and coding for physician services.

So get certified today if you are working in the field. If you are taking a course, be sure to take the certification exam shortly after your course is complete. There are also preparatory classes offered to help you prepare for the certification examination. Do it for yourself. This is a great accomplishment and will bring much more value to your degree.

Which office chairs provide the back support you need during long workdays at your desk? Here are some must-have features that are recommended by Chiropractor Dr. Rodney K. Lefler on Spine-Health.com:

• The seat height should adjust easily, allowing you to sit with your feet flat on the floor and your arms even with the desk surface.

• The seat should tilt, and should be deep enough to let you sit with your back against the backrest.

• There should be a lumbar support that adjusts for both height and depth, so you can find a setting that supports the inward curve of your lower back.

• The backrest should be adjustable for both angle and height.

• The fabric should be breathable, and padding should be thick enough to provide comfort during long periods of use.

• Armrests should be adjustable up and down, so your arms can rest comfortably on them while your shoulders are relaxed.

• Swiveling should be easy, so you can turn easily to reach different articles in your work area.

For more information on picking the desk chair that is best for your back, watch Watch Your Back, a video from Spine-Health.com.

Those are the basics. But which chairs fill the bill? You’ll find reviews of popular models online at ConsumerSearch.com and at Galt Home.

Buying a good chair for a great price . . .

Consider buying a used desk chair. Due to the current wave of company downsizings, lots of used office furniture is currently available – some at liquidation prices. To find a company that sells used office equipment in your area, visit the Yellow Pages online or search online for “used office equipment.”

After hours of working on your computer do you find that your wrists are sore and tired? If you are planning on entering a career in medical billing and coding, wrist fatigue could be a huge factor in preventing you from working efficiently. Medical Billing and Coding Blog has outlined the key medical problem associated with wrist fatigue, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

What is Carpal Tunnel Syndome?

According to WebMD, Carpal tunnel syndrome “occurs when the median nerve becomes pinched due to swelling of the nerve or tendons or both. The median nerve provides sensation to the palm side of the thumb, index, middle fingers, as well as the inside half of the ring finger and muscle power to the thumb. When this nerve becomes pinched, numbness, tingling and sometimes pain of the affected fingers and hand may occur and radiate into the forearm.”

What causes Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and what are its symptoms?

While there are several possible causes of the disorder, normally it springs from repeated movement of the arms, wrists or hands, often times by typing at a computer for long hours. If you work long days on a computer and your hands and/or fingers feel tingly or numb at night, or if you experience a burning or shooting pain up your forearm, you could have a case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

How to Prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

According to WebMD, to prevent this wrist fatigue disorder you can:

• Sleep with your wrists straight or use a splint.
• Keep your wrists straight when using tools but try not to use splints.
• Avoid flexing and extending your wrists repeatedly.
• Perform conditioning and stretching exercises.

How Can I Cure Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

There are a few methods to resolve your issues with wrist fatigue, or carpal tunnel syndrome: anti-inflammatory drugs can be taken to bring the swelling down and relieve the stress in your wrist ligaments/tendons, or you can also try and immobilize your wrist at night in a splint or wrap. If these conservative measures don’t work, then there is a surgical option where a doctor can manually cut the affected ligament to relieve the stress. Surgery is very effective at relieving wrist fatigue, but being aware of the causes of the syndrome is crucial for long term relief.

It is very important for any aspiring or current biller and coder to be aware of the above information. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can be incredibly harmful to anyone preparing for, or currently in, a billing and coding career. For more information on preventing and treating this type of wrist fatigue, visit WebMD for more details.

“Hot Jobs: Medical Coders Are in Great Demand,” an article by Scott Andron in The Miami Herald, reports encouraging news about the growing need for medical billers and coders in Florida.  “Health information management might be for you, and a job as a medical coder might be the place to start,” Andron writes.

The Miami Herald is not the only publication that is optimistic about opportunities for medical billers and coders in Florida. According to Orlandojobs.com’s Employment Outlook for Central Florida report, healthcare jobs are among the fastest growing employment opportunities in Florida. The report points to fast-growing opportunities for physical therapists, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, medical coders and medical billers.

What’s driving this growth? One significant force is the construction of new medical facilities in the state. One of the more promising could be the planned “medical city” in Orlando’s Lake Nona area. According to a recent article in The Orlando Business Journal, the development of this medical and research park has the potential to create 30,000 high-paying jobs in just a decade.

So, is Florida a good place to start and grow your career as a medical biller and coder? It certainly seems to be. We’ll be watching the trends in Florida and other states in the coming months and reporting on them here.

This is a wonderful and exciting time to be entering the allied health field.  No matter what work setting you are in, allied health professionals are in demand.  As costs continue to rise, there are greater demands for improved quality and safety in patient care.  To tackle these problems, the U.S. healthcare system is turning to technology.

Why do allied health students need to know about electronic medical records? The answer is simple – because you will use electronic health records to accomplish tasks once on-the-job.  The transition from paper records to electronic health records affects everyone working in health care today.  Consider just a few examples of the changes electronic health records bring to these jobs:

• Medical assistants enter patient information, such as vital signs, into the electronic health record.
• Coding professionals review electronic documentation in the electronic health record to determine the appropriate code for an encounter.
• Technicians working in blood and chemistry labs, radiology, nuclear medicine, cardiovascular medicine and other areas respond to electronic orders and send test results electronically using an electronic health record.
• Billing professionals use information in the electronic health record to prepare insurance claims and patient statements.

As you can see, many allied health careers require the use of computers, and because of this, there is great demand for graduates to have a background in healthcare as well as experience with computers.  In addition, employers are seeking individuals who are capable of operating within a constantly changing work environment.

To be successful, workers must be willing and able to learn new things throughout their career.  In addition to education, certification from a nationally recognized organization, such as the American Academy of Professional Coders, brings more employment and advancement opportunities.

While America’s eventual transfer to electronic medical records (EMR) is a foregone conclusion, the ways in which we accomplish the shift is still being debated. The key is to create a system that makes doctors’ lives easier, and not more difficult. To achieve this goal, medical coding professionals are crucial to the future of electronic medical records.

The most logical interface to aggregate all medical records is the internet. Individual computers that contain medical record information is a method of the past; to maintain all medical records – a  huge amount of  information – a web-based system is the only option capable of immediately updating and maintaining the digital system.

Aside from changing a paperwork-based system that has become standard practice for them, doctors are often times unfamiliar with the pages of coded medical terms that are central to electronic medical records. This is another obstacle that stands in the way of the full adoption of digital health records, and highlights the necessary inclusion of medical coding professionals in healthcare facilities.

Professionals who are trained and experienced in medical coding facilitate the full implementation of electronic medical records. President Obama guaranteed that every American medical record will be electronic by 2014; this means huge job growth for medical billers and coders.

A web-based system of electronic records will improve the overall practice of healthcare. When a prescription is needed from a pharmacy, for example, instead of a phone call or paper slip, the pharmacy will receive the prescription automatically over the internet and will have the medication ready when the patient arrives. Without paperwork, healthcare in America will improve for all parties, and an essential ingredient of this progress are medical coding professionals.

“I love my kids and they deserve my time,” says Toni K, a woman who is studying online to become a medical biller and coder. “But I feel like I never get any uninterrupted time to sit down and concentrate on my lessons. The kids are always banging on my door, and then I feel guilty if I get irritated at them. Does anyone out there have any suggestions?”

We posed this question to Dr. Kenneth Ruge, a therapist who has written several books, including Where Do I Go from Here?

“Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to this problem,” Ruge states. “Overall, I would say that it is best to get out of the house, if you can. Get to Starbucks, for example. However, when kids reach age seven or eight, they might enjoy doing their own homework while a parent is studying – it can become a family study period that kids will actually enjoy. And kids can feel good if they know they are helping a parent reach important goals.”

Here are more ideas we gathered from people who have learned how to juggle studying with parenting duties:

Make sure your technology is not limiting you. If your only computer is a desktop at home, maybe a laptop would let you study over lunch hours at work. And laptops can now be bought for $400 or even less. Another solution? Print out your online lessons and carry them with you. Remember, paper is portable.

Look for uninterrupted time. Many home learners report that it can be better to get up an hour earlier in the day – or stay up after kids have gone to bed – than to try to keep kids from interrupting during early evening hours. “It might not be easy to get up an hour before your kids on a weekday, but it can be worth it,” Ruge suggests.

Utilize small blocks of time. “Find a few minutes of free time here, and a few minutes of free time there,” suggests Barry Lenson, author of Good Stress, Bad Stress. The result can be up to an hour of “found” time that can depressurize evenings at home.

Have you found ways to keep your kids from ruining your study time? If so, please share your ideas here, by responding to this post.

Did the word “deduction!” jump into your mind the minute you thought about opening a home office? If so, you are thinking wisely, because a home office provides many great opportunities to deduct business expenses from your taxes.

But be careful. The IRS has some requirements – and traps – waiting for people who break the rules about what can be deducted.  So be sure to follow these steps to avoid trouble.

Read what the IRS has to say. Download Business Use of Your Home, a guide that is published by the Internal Revenue Service. It spells out which expenses are deductible, how much of your home you can deduct as a home office, and more. You’ll also find some unpleasant surprises. Example: If you sell your home for a profit after you’ve taking deductions for a home office in it, you could end up paying capital gains tax on your business. (See page 14 of Business Use of Your Home.)

Talk over your plans with your accountant or tax preparer. Your strategy for taking home-office deductions will vary according to whether you own your home or rent, the physical layout of your home, the amount of time you intend to stay in your current residence, and other factors.

Keep complete records of all deductible expenses. A file cabinet is your best friend in this area. Set up files for office expenses, travel expenses, and all other categories. Also: Print out and file records of Internet purchases, invoices and other electronic documents that you will need to complete your taxes. Preparing your taxes will be much easier if you have all your records in one place.

If you have multiple clients, keep careful records for each of them. You will need to track the income for each of them – as well as expenses that apply uniquely to them – separately. Your accountant or tax preparer can help you set up filing categories to keep everything straight.

Consider using an accounting program to track all expenses and income. Intuit Quickbooks, a program that is available through computer retailers and via download, is excellent. But remember, you have to be diligent about entering all your data into it.

If you bill several clients by the hour, use software to track your hours and income.  Intuit Quickbooks Pro and Premier editions can track billable hours and expenses for multiple clients – plus, they are excellent all-around accounting programs for your business. Also: Some home workers with multiple clients recommend project-management software called Tenrox Timesheet.

And one more consideration . . .

If you are setting up a home-based business, this could be a great time to establish a self-employed qualified retirement plan (SEP IRA) or other retirement plan. You might be able to contribute up to $2,000 a year tax-free. Consult your accountant or tax preparer to learn whether such plans are a good idea for you. Now that you are self-employed as a biller coder with a business of your own, why not enjoy all the benefits?

According to a December 30, 2009 article in the NY Times, entitled “Bonus Planned for Digital Medical Records”, Medicare officials have outlined a plan to reward medical offices and hospitals that maintain systems of electronic medical records. Under the proposed stimulus, billions of dollars will be handed out across the country to healthcare providers that keep updated digital medical records of their patients. The announcement is just a proposal, however, and the plan does not expect to be completed until the spring.

The article features a quote from David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology, who says that “Widespread adoptions of electronic health records holds great promise for improving health care quality, efficiency, and patient safety”.

The proposed plan will provide bonus payments to health care professionals who use electronic medical records for at least 80 percent of their medical instructions. These incentives will facilitate America’s full transfer to electronic medical records, which President Obama has promised by 2014.  According to Obama administration officials, using digital health records will reduce costly medical errors and duplicate testing.

The national implementation of electronic medical records will also result with a high demand for healthcare technology professionals, such as medical billing and coding specialists, who can help medical offices and hospitals maintain these systems of electronic medical records.