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We are almost starting the new year of 2015. The new year always brings thoughts of goals and resolutions for the coming year. If you have been considering a career change, now is a great time to plan your medical billing career.
Due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more and more people are accessing healthcare services, and this has created a demand for trained healthcare personnel. Also, the aging of the baby boomer population has created a situation where more and more elderly people are accessing healthcare services. Additionally, the implementation of ICD-10 in October of this coming new year (2015) will create the need for greater documentation and more well-trained healthcare workers.
Plan Your Medical Billing Career Now!
When deciding on a career in medical billing, it’s important to understand the the government projects this career field to grow over 20% into and even past the year 2020. This means there will be a lot of available jobs. So, the next question one should ask is, how much will I make as a medical biller? The answer is that it depends on your years of experience, part of the country which you reside, and if you have obtained higher-level certifications like what AAPC is now offering for medical billers. The short answer is between $14-$20 an hour. Another factor is if you are working in an outpatient facility or inpatient hospital doing billing.
There are many career paths for the well-trained and experienced medical biller such as doing auditing for a facility that is wanting to check their own compliance. Also, doing medical billing advocacy such as working for a service that offers to be a liaison between the hospital and patient regarding the patient’s hospital bill and charges. Medical billing advocates try to find overcharges, mis-charges, lab tests that were ordered and paid for but were not actually performed, etc. Also, medical billers can work for payers- the insurance company. The will adjudicate claims and make decisions for payment.
Medical billers need to be detail-oriented people who enjoy always learning something new. Laws, rules, regulations, are constantly changing and medical billing personnel need to be willing to learn about these through webinars, publications, and professional associations.
The last thing to consider for a medical billing career is how long training takes. Training for medical billing takes about 12-16 weeks. One can effectively learn medical billing online.
By: Dawn Moreno, PhD, CBCS, CMAA, MTC. Lives in the beautiful Southwest United States and has been an instructor for medical coding/billing for the past 7 years. Interested in quality medical billing training?