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.

“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.

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?

Are You Ready to Advance Your Career? is a fun, informative self-test that’s available free online at Queendom.com. If you take it, you’ll find that it delivers some useful perspective on where your abilities could take you in professional life.

We took the test and liked it. It got us thinking. So we asked 10 medical biller and coders to name the traits that have helped them achieve success in their careers. Here are the five qualities they named most often. If you possess them, a career in medical billing and coding could be a good choice for you.

Trait #1: The ability to work on your own, without close supervision. This trait was named by every medical biller and coder we polled.

Trait #2: The ability to focus, finish up and follow through on assignments.

Trait #3: Good organizational skills and the ability to calmly handle a backlog of work.

Trait #4: A willingness to work flexible hours.

Trait #5: Interest in working at home, or in starting a company. (Six of the people we polled are thinking about starting their own home-based businesses to process medical claims.)

Interesting: Only four of the 10 people we polled cited computer skills as being critical to success, and only three people cited medical knowledge. “Those are skills you learn in school,” one person told us, “you don’t need them before you decide to train for the profession.”

We’d like to hear from you about this topic. If you’re a professional medical biller and coder, what skills and qualities have helped you succeed?

1. Federal stimulus money is being poured into the cause.

a.  As part of President Obama’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”, $19.2 billion is being invested into America’s transition to digital health records.

b.  John Kerry’s recent legislation “The Small Business Health Information Technology Act of 2009” will make family doctors and small medical offices eligible for Small Business Administration loans to cover the costly transition to electronic medical records.

2. Obama has called for mandatory digitization of medical records by 2014.

a.  When Obama was elected president, he guaranteed that all health records in America will be digital by 2014.

b.  As electronic medical records become standard in medical offices and hospitals, so will medical billing and coding specialists.

3.  Major corporations are also helping the cause.

a.  General Electric recently launched a program to increase access to technology, and reduce the cost of transitioning to electronic medical records.

b.  Microsoft and Kaiser Permanente have partnered in an attempt facilitate an efficient and timely transfer to universal digital health records.

4.  Baby boomers are aging.

a.  With the largest generation of Americans entering retirement, more Americans will need medical attention than ever before.

b.  A White House report projects a 48% growth from 2000-2016 in the demand for “healthcare support” workers, a group that includes medical records and health information technicians.  Check out the graph here.

5.  Heavier workloads + electronic medical records = physicians need help

a.  With more Americans needing medical attention, and the shift to digital health records looming, more and more doctors are in need of medical billing and coding specialists to take care of their insurance claims; and the demand will only increase.

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

Electronic medical records will improve the efficiency and reliability of the healthcare system in America. Check out this report that outlines some of its benefits.