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.

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.

To ensure that you get the most out of the Career Services Department, Medical Billing and Coding Blog has outlined some of the important benefits of the department.  Here are a few tips in taking advantage of all that Career Services has to offer:

Assistance with Resume Writing

Your resume is one of the most important documents in your job search. Having a professional, well-written, and neatly organized resume can go a long way in impressing your potential employer. The Career Services Department has specialists who can walk you through the resume writing process, and ensure that you present yourself well to potential employers.

Interviewing Tips

The Career Services Department also specialize in teaching crucial career tips, such as offering mock interviews and advice on “dressing for success”. It is extremely important to enter an interview prepared and confident in your candidacy for the position, and our Career Services Department focuses on preparing students for these critical interviews.

Job Opportunities

Where are the jobs available? This is the most important question when beginning your job search. Luckily, the Career Services Department remains well-informed on what positions employers are hiring, and the type of candidates for which they are searching. This is another reason why it is imperative for you to remain connected to the Career Services Department – they are in the loop on job information, and can help you apply to the right positions for you.

Employer Information

A major part of preparing for an interview is becoming familiar with your potential employer. The Career Services Department has a lot of valuable information on potential employers, including their hiring history and what they look for in a candidate. This information is priceless as you prepare for a job interview. The more familiar you are with those interviewing you, the better off you will be.

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.

Last Monday’s post covered some strategies for making the transition to working at home.  This week, let’s explore some of the same concepts in more depth, with an emphasis on staying focused when you are working and studying alone.

• Work in dedicated time blocks. Don’t check your email or send text messages during your working or studying period.  Work time should be work time.

• Explain to family members that you should not be interrupted.  A student who is also a mother explains, “I took me a week to train my kids not to interrupt me. I told them they could only knock on the door if somebody was dying.”

• Get away to a quiet place. Many students report that their concentration is best in a public library,  on a park bench,  or in a vacant conference room at work.  So try to get away from it all.

• Beware of “crash” foods. A cup of high-test coffee or a bowl of sugary cereal might start your day on an energy high, but you will probably crash afterwards.  Many students and home workers report that solid foods like almonds, granola bars, or fruit do a better job of sustaining energy. Try eating them in small quantities throughout your working and studying hours.

• Get rid of eye strain in your work area. One simple strategy is to place your computer so it is not between you and a bright window. In that position, you have to squint to see your screen, which causes fatigue. Better: Sit with your back to the window and your computer in front of you.
• Also: Turn off your computer and look at your computer screen.  If you see bright reflections on it from windows or lights, move your computer to eliminate them.  They are contributing to eyestrain and fatigue.

And then there’s the greatest fatigue-fighter of all . . .

Make sure you are getting enough sleep. Sounds logical, right? But how much sleep is enough?  To find out, read Sleep, Performance and the Workplace, a report from the National Sleep Foundation.

How will your career be affected if healthcare reform becomes law? If you’re a billing and coding specialist or student, questions like these have probably been on your mind:

• Will I see a big increase in demand for my services?

• If coverage is increased for eldercare, women’s care and other targeted needs, will that create new opportunities for me?

• If Medicare changes, how will that impact on my career?

Because the healthcare bill is still being modified and debated, there is no way to know definitive answers to those questions. But some predictions are still possible.

Let’s look at what we do know . . .

Millions of additional Americans will be covered if healthcare legislation passes. “The $1.1 trillion bill would expand insurance coverage to an additional 38 million people over the next decade by requiring that almost all citizens have insurance and providing subsidies to those who can’t afford it,” writes Emily T. Walker in MedPage Today.

Source: “House Passes Healthcare Reform” by Emily T. Walker; MedPage Today.

Prediction: The need for billers and coders should increase dramatically if legislation passes.

A number of specialized services will be covered. According to the On Women blog of U.S. News, additional women’s healthcare procedures, including mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, will be covered if the bill passes.

Source: “Women’s Preventive Health Amendment Added to Senate Reform Bill” by Deborah Kotz; On Women blog.

Prediction: An increase in needed services for women and other underserved groups should contribute to a growing need for medical billers and coders.

Medicare will remain a strong and growing program. For assurance that Medicare services will not be diminished if healthcare reform passes, watch “VP Biden Discusses Healthcare with Seniors,” a 90-minute video available on Whitehouse.gov.

Prediction: As America’s population continues to increase (as reported on the U.S. Census), a growing number of older Americans will need medical care – and that should increase the demand for skilled information processors.

While no one can predict exactly how many new jobs will be created by healthcare reform, the outlook seems extremely good for billers and coders – and for the consumers they serve.

Senator John Kerry recently introduced “The Small Business Health Information Technology Financing Act of 2009″, a piece of legislation aimed at aiding family doctors switch to electronic medical records. The Act would make family doctors and other small medical practices eligible for Small Business Administration loans that would cover the costly transition from paper to digital health records. As a senior member of the Finance Committee and former Chairman of the Small Business Committee, Kerry is committed to helping President Obama achieve his goal of digitizing all  American health records  by 2014.

“Electronic medical records and prescriptions are the common sense solution to restricting costs, reducing errors, and reforming a broken system,  Kerry said. “Doctors don’t need convincing — they’ve seen the results.  This legislation helps small practices acquire the technology that will allow them to be more efficient and to focus on patient care.”

Kerry is not a newcomer  to healthcare technology legislation; in 2007 he introduced the Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection  Act of 2007, which required physicians to employ electronic prescription technology.

According to an October 2009 article from the Washington Post,  “In a healthcare debate characterized by partisan bickering, most lawmakers agree on one thing: American medicine needs to go digital”.

The article, entitled “Electronic medical records not seen as a cure-all”, outlines many of the problems currently clouding the shift to electronic medical records (EMR). It is clear from the article that America has an arduous road ahead in implementing an efficient and error-free system. Aside from the technical issues that healthcare facilities have encountered with their EMR, the time that physicians are forced to spend on their computers to maintain the system has also been problematic. This is where healthcare technology professionals, such as medical billers and coders, can pay huge dividends in future procedures of EMR.  Medical facilities will hire technical saavy medical billers and coders, who are specialily trained  in running EMR systems; these specialists can help eliminate the current problems plaguing today’s electronic health records.

Doctors and nurses are at the forefront of patient care, and receive most of the attention associated with running a medical office. Behind the scenes, however, medical and billing and coding specialists serve vital roles in maintaining a successful healthcare facility.

Here is a quick rundown of some of the responsibilities of medical billers and coders:

• Run the software and systems that help keep our healthcare network going
• Process critical claims and medical records
• Code medical and surgical procedures using proper terminology
• Collect payment from patients and insurance companies
• Validate patient insurance information