Thursday, December 4, 2008

Medical Billing Careers

By Herbert Reich

One sector of the economy which is still growing even in the midst of the current economic uncertainty is the healthcare industry. One of the strongest growth areas within the industry in terms of employment opportunities is positions in medical billing. After all, everyone employed in the healthcare field, from heart surgeons to lab technicians wants to be paid for their hard work. The medical biller is the person whose responsibility it is to make this possible.

Generally, a medical biller is employed by a healthcare provider (an HMO or a hospital, for instance). Medical billers need to be extremely detail oriented, as they have to accurately input data for insurance claims, field questions from physicians, patients, clerical staff and other hospital personnel, have a good set of problem solving abilities to resolve complaints and concerns when they come up and enter accounts receivable items such as insurance payments when they arrive. Medical billers also have to decide how to get the biggest payment possible from insurance companies who fail to pay up in a timely manner, assist patients in deciding on lump sum payment versus a payment plan and even following up on and reporting delinquent accounts - there are a lot of responsibilities which the medical biller must handle.

As you become skilled as a medical biller, you'll acquire a lot of medical terminology and knowledge. You'll learn the meaning of all of the suffixes, prefixes and root words involved in the medical field. You will also learn a lot about anatomy and the names of diseases. While you'll probably never learn them all, you'll be surprised at how large of a body of knowledge you'll acquire as a medical biller.

Billers have to work closely with lab technicians and physicians in order to accurately process the necessary insurance paperwork. At times, the biller will have to take some initiative and determine when a patient will be returning for a follow up and when they are simply in for a one time visit. You'll need to become knowledgeable enough about medical procedures and terminology to be able to compare a diagnosis with the treatment given by the physician and if needed, to make corrections. A medical biller also picks up another piece of arcane knowledge - deciphering the illegible handwriting for which doctors are famous.

Medical billers also need a good set of communications skills - they need to speak with doctors and other very busy medical professionals who don't really have the free time to go over things more than once. All of these skills can be learned by taking Ashworth College's medical billing course - this will prepare you for this demanding but rewarding career.

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