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.

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.

Are you currently working or planning to work from home? Are you concerned about the huge amounts of data that are piling up on your home computer? Billing and Coding Blog has outlined some of the best data backup systems, and their benefits for home-workers.

Carbonite – This online data backup system installs a small application on your computer that automatically backs up data on your computer for only $54.95 per year. This price remains the same regardless of how much data you need to back up! Carbonite goes to sleep when you are active on your computer, and the software only works while your computer is idle; this ensures that you never lose any speed or functionality while you work! Click here for more information and to start your free trial.

Other online storage services to consider: VaultLogix, Data Deposit Box

External Hard-Drives – These serve as extensions of your computer’s hard drive and are available in a variety of sizes and prices, depending on how much data you need to backup. Depending on the speed of your computer, and the size of your hard drive, backing up your data could be a time consuming process. Also, if you lose the hard drive – which can be as small as a wallet – all your data will be gone.

Click here to read PC World’s list of the Top 10 External Hard Drives

CD/DVD – This is the cheapest available option, and since most PCs are now equipped with CD burners, there are few obstacles in getting started. Since this is the cheapest option, however, there are some concerns; it can take considerable time and discs to backup large drives, and CDs can be easily scratched and ruined without proper caution. If you only need to backup a little bit of crucial data, and are confident in your care for the discs, then CD/DVD may be your best option for data backup.

Do you have any advice on the best data backup options? Please leave us a comment and let us know what has worked for you!

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.

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.

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