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#61899 - 02/26/07 06:59 PM
Would you agree with this?!
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mkmmary
Junior Member
Registered: 06/26/05
Posts: 44
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Okay everyone, I asked about medical coding on a different forum, and this is the response I got--is this right?
if you want a billing and coding cert go through your local community college, do not go through a a private school. a good comm college will require you to take anatomy and physiology classes (many comm colleges that have a medical assistant program offer their own a&p classes), and medical technology. Do not answer an ad from a paper most of those are scams. Most drs will not let you do at home until you have worked a while, billing and coding is a good job, but if you make 1 mistake, intentional or not it's a minimum of $10k fine
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#61958 - 02/27/07 08:46 AM
Re: Would you agree with this?!
[Re: mkmmary]
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Linda Andrews CMT
Moderator-Andrews School
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 5317
Loc: Oklahoma City, OK US
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That's a great question! I am answering it from the point of view of the owner/director of a private vocational school with courses in medical transcription and medical coding. That's all we do.
I would say that they are right that if you want to work in a doctor's office as a billing clerk or medical assistant, or even in a hospital admissions or billing office, the community college may be the way to go. There is more emphasis on billing. You would be prepared to be a medical biller with an understanding of the coding necessary to put on the insurance forms.
If you want to be a medical coder, that's entirely different. For instance, hospitals want a great deal more before they will consider you to be a medical coder. They are much more interested in hiring you if you are certified. Our program is designed to help students get the training they need to be prepared for coding certification exams. It includes the medical terminology, anatomy & physiology, disease processes, etc. The actual coding experience portion of the course is so intense that our graduates are very successful in passing the certification exams right out of school, with no on-the-job experience. That makes them much more marketable for their first job. There may be community colleges that are producing graduates that are ready for the certification exam. Most are not teaching coding to that level and don't even want to teach a course in coding to that level. They are usually more heavily invested in the medical assistant, nursing, and medical billing end of things.
You also asked about the work-at-home billing ads that you see everywhere. There are thousands of rip-off companies that claim to prepare people to do medical billing from their own homes. Are there legitimate ones? Maybe. I just haven't seen one yet. I have seen people who said to me, "I'm a nurse and all of the doctors I work with say that they will give me their business when I finish." They didn't. "I'm the business manager of a medical practice. The doctors I work for are going to let me do their billing when I finish." They didn't. Doctors call their colleagues and ask them who does their billing. It's usually a bonded company that has been in business for many years with a great track record for success in handling doctors' accounts.
I have much more to say on this subject, but I'm off to a meeting.
I don't know if this has been helpful or not, but I'm sure others will be along with other points of view shortly. Good luck with your evaluation of all your options!
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#62073 - 02/27/07 09:32 PM
Re: Would you agree with this?!
[Re: mkmmary]
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Redpen
Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 970
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if you want a billing and coding cert go through your local community college, do not go through a a private school. a good comm college will require you to take anatomy and physiology classes (many comm colleges that have a medical assistant program offer their own a&p classes), and medical technology. Do not answer an ad from a paper most of those are scams. Most drs will not let you do at home until you have worked a while, billing and coding is a good job, but if you make 1 mistake, intentional or not it's a minimum of $10k fine
Those are good questions! I'll tackle them one at a time.
if you make 1 mistake, intentional or not it's a minimum of $10k fine
That's an exaggeration, but not by much. Accurate coding and billing is very important. If you do not code the case correctly, you may be paid less or not at all, or you may have to refund the payment. Insurers do track error rates and may start requiring you to submit all the patient's records along with the bill, which costs a fortune and delays payment. Defrauding federal insurers is a crime and, yes, there can be very large fines for errors.
Coding is not clerical work. It's not the kind of job where some supervisor hangs over you to make you do it right. Your work isn't checked before it's sent out, but it is audited. This demand for accuracy is what pushes coding into the professional ranks. Coding is high-stakes and high-pressure. Accuracy needs to be in the range of 98% and YOU need to be able to tell when you're accurate. Coding requires following instructions to the letter, figuring out puzzles and solving problems (all day, every day). It also requires high production in order to meet deadlines and keep money coming in. Coding is a READING job; it requires reading lots of references and lots of patient records.
If you follow instructions well, insist upon accuracy, take satisfaction in solving puzzles, and enjoy a high-production environment with heavy responsibility (and good pay!), then coding may be for you. If you love to read and your reading level has always been higher than average, coding may be for you. It's especially for you if you enjoy reading about medicine.
Here are some statements that indicate coding may NOT be for you. "I hate reading." "I have to read things over and over and over until I get it. It's a drag." "I'd rather have somebody tell me how to do things than read how to do them." "I can't stand looking anything up." "I'll do whatever my boss tells me--he's responsible, not me." "I hate going to school." "The minute I finish this course, I'm never opening a book again." "I work at a pace comfortable for me and I'm not expending anymore effort than I have to." "It makes me angry when people tell me what to do." "I can't stand anybody checking up on me." "I never follow instructions exactly--I change things just a little bit to add my own personal touch." "People aren't serious about instructions, so I never bother with them."
Another major indicator that coding might not be for you is that you have a reputation as a gossip. If you have ever talked about a patient to your family or friends, or can't see why you should not discuss a physician's business with others, and don't feel a particular need to stop doing this, coding might not be for you.
Most drs will not let you do at home until you have worked a while
Nearly all employers, not just doctors, will not let you work at home until you have worked on-site a while. Coding isn't trivial work--new coders do require some time gaining experience. Right now, more coding jobs are on-site than are off. Right now, in order to get a job working off-site, you will need to be able to handle working off-site, and that means you'll need experience. How much time this will take depends on how motivated to learn you are.
If you need to work at home right off, transcription is a better choice.
Do not answer an ad from a paper most of those are scams
This is good advice. Be very careful of "coding and billing" programs that advertise on bus stop benches, in the paper, on little signs stuck along the road. If they try to sell you a billing software and training package, run screaming from the room.
if you want a billing and coding cert go through your local community college, do not go through a a private school. a good comm college will require you to take anatomy and physiology classes (many comm colleges that have a medical assistant program offer their own a&p classes), and medical technology.
First, you are not going to get a billing and coding "cert" from ANY school, not even a community college. The only way you can get those is by taking a certification examination offered by a professional organization, such as the AAPC or AHIMA. Courses give you a certificate of completion or a diploma. Most coding programs in colleges don't lead to a degree--just a certificate. After that, you have to go take a big test--like a CPA test--to get that credential.
This is why the coding program you choose needs to actually teach you how to code well enough to pass a certification exam on the level of the CPC, CPC-H, CCS, and CCS-P, not just the CCA and not just to get a job where someone else can teach you how to code.
The fact that a course is taught at a community college is no guarantee that you'll learn enough to work in coding or to pass a certification exam. The fact that they have their "own" A&P courses is no guarantee of quality. The books they use may be watered-down, adult-ed texts more suited to high school--that's why they have their "own" A&P courses . . . because the regular ones are "too much." Many of those programs have to teach all sorts of courses like English and math and psychology and how to do word processing and speech and personal wellness, and teach only a few courses in actual coding. Don't think that a college program means you'll have help from instructors, either. Colleges may have a hard time finding people to teach who can actually code, so they're not much help. They're tending to use online material produced by publishers now--like a slide show with a test at the end--so your "virtual instructor" will be a smiling photo of the textbook's author.
You can't judge a school by its type or location. There are good colleges and bad, and there are good distance programs and bad.
What people mean when they tell you a college offers courses is that you should choose a school which offers actual college-level course material, as opposed to something that leaves half of it out and rolls up the rest into one or two packets of photocopied class materials.
They're telling you to avoid fly-by-nights and time-wasters who purport to teach medical language, A&P, pharmacology, and pathophysiology in a one-chapter-long word list and some diagrams. They're telling you that ICD-9-CM and CPT coding cannot be covered in one chapter each in a home-printed book.
You need full, college-level courses -- using reputable college-level textbooks -- if you are to learn coding. You need a LOT of exposure to the coding, too, if you're to learn it. Look for a program that provides medical language, A&P, pathophysiology, pharmacology, laboratory/diagnostic medicine; ICD-9-CM coding for physician services and, separately, ICD-9-CM coding for inpatient services; CPT/HCPCS procedure coding; advanced coverage of coding using simulated cases; and reimbursement methods (insurance and billing). In there should be some healthcare law, medical records, etc.
Do your homework before you sign up. Do a LOT of investigating. Make sure the school you choose actually produces students who are marketable coders, not just people who sat through a bunch of classes, but still need to learn to code.
Expect that a good course is going to be more intense than the other kind and that it will require more work. 
_________________________
Redpen
(The Andrews School)
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#62231 - 03/01/07 10:30 AM
Re: Would you agree with this?!
[Re: Redpen]
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mkmmary
Junior Member
Registered: 06/26/05
Posts: 44
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Thanks y'all! I think I will take the transcription classes first, then when my kids are older,(or coding becomes more work at home) I will take the coding course. I love reading, always have, and I find it easier to read instructions rather than have someone just tell me how to do it. I am one that ALWAYS reads the instructions before putting something together, etc. I am also very anal about doing things correctly. So.....thanks for the information-you both are always so helpful! Have a great day! 
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#62579 - 03/04/07 02:31 AM
Re: Would you agree with this?!
[Re: mkmmary]
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Redpen
Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 970
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Thanks y'all! I think I will take the transcription classes first, then when my kids are older,(or coding becomes more work at home) I will take the coding course. I love reading, always have, and I find it easier to read instructions rather than have someone just tell me how to do it. I am one that ALWAYS reads the instructions before putting something together, etc. I am also very anal about doing things correctly. So.....thanks for the information-you both are always so helpful! Have a great day!
You sound well-suited for either, then! Starting with transcription is a good plan. Once you are working, you can then consider starting to learn coding. The basic knowledge that is required for MT also applies to coding, so by learning MT you also get a head start on the underpinnings of coding. You won't be changing occupations as much as you'll be building on the one and taking it in a slightly different direction.
I think we'll be seeing a lot more need for coders who have a solid background in medical transcription and documentation. As use of the electronic medical record becomes more widespread, there will be an increased need for individuals who can help adapt that to new data-entry modalities. As reimbursement gets tighter with insurers demanding more and more stringent reporting requirements, coders who can advise on documentation content will be needed. Learning coding as an extension of your MT skills can help you expand your job prospects.
_________________________
Redpen
(The Andrews School)
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#75494 - 07/02/07 12:14 PM
Re: Would you agree with this?!
[Re: Redpen]
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SkyPilot
Junior Member
Registered: 06/04/07
Posts: 26
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Starting with transcription is a good plan. Once you are working, you can then consider starting to learn coding. The basic knowledge that is required for MT also applies to coding, so by learning MT you also get a head start on the underpinnings of coding. You won't be changing occupations as much as you'll be building on the one and taking it in a slightly different direction.
This is great to hear. I have been considering learning coding after I've graduated from Andrews' MT program and have worked a couple of years or so. I figure that I can only increase my options and my value to employers with this additional skill.
From what I've personally learned about Andrews' quality from the MT side of the "house," there's absolutely NO DOUBT where I'm going to get my coding training at!
_________________________
Andrews School Grad (8/2008)
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Moderator: Linda Andrews CMT
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