medical billing or coding newbie

alliedschools.com

Has anyone tried either their medical billing or coding training courses??

Did you like it, would you recommend it?? I'm tired of working at a restaurant and would like to learn a career but I just want make sure that I am learning from a school that will actually lead me somewhere(specially that it cost 1600 dollars)

So please let me know what you think about them and if there is other schools that you will recomment over them!

Thanks

• medical billing or coding newbie - Marie

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My husband is curious and wanting to get into Medical Billing/Coding and work from home like I do with transcription.  Does anyone know of a website, like this one, that offers so many jobs from home and information regarding coding and/or billing?  Thanks.  Also, if anyone has input on this please let us know.  Would love to find out which course is the best, etc....thanks!

background and anatomy and physiology knowledge, a transition into coding wouldn't be hard at all.  From what I can tell by looking through my husband's books, an MT would have to learn insurance regulations and legalities.  We've basically got all the medical background down or we should be if we're worth our salt as an MT.

I even contacted AHIMA and found that the qualifications for taking the CCS or CCP coding exams are completion of the a coding program, RHIT program, or RHIA or related work experience.  Transcription is part of HIM, albeit the red-headed stepchild of the HIM department, but a part nonetheless and so satisfies the qualification of having work experience.

The test is tough though.  My husband didn't pass it his first time out and I think I read something like only 20% or so pass it the first time.  So it would probably be best to take some sort of formal coding class, in my opinion.

Hi, I am currently a transcriber.  (leaving the field because as you all know this field is getting too ridiculous).  I am planning to attend a billing and coding school locally.  I was wondering if the hours vary for coding/billing or are the working hours typical 9-5 or 8-4, etc.    TIA

Curious whether there are any MTs out there, or anyone who knows info, on going into billing and coding...

I'm considering training for that in my spare time now, so that I have the opportunity later, if I decide to pursue that.  Are there a fair amount of work-at-home positions in billing and coding?  After my newbie days, I've never had trouble finding MT work with good companies, so I wondered if billing was as widespread, at home.  I haven't found nearly as much info out there on at-home billing, other than get-rich-quick scheming.  Anyone know if the pay is on a similar scale?  Opportunity for PT and FT, like MT?  Similarities and differences (not on the actual job, but work issues like benefits, flexibility, etc.)

Thanks for any help!

I would venture to say 99.9% of medical offices use a computer system for their billing which has HCFA formatting and electronic submission built right in. It is pretty easy to do coding in the office setting too. In good conscience, could not recommend investing money in training for either field...

Use the link below that I wrote a few months ago.  It is a very honest review of today's coding needs and environment.  Good luck!

http://forum.mtstars.com/company/v/1/13589.html

Needing a better job than the one I've got, I've been spending my late nights searching the far reaches of the internet.  It seems the only MT jobs that will actually support a person are in-hospital jobs, and the few that still exist are rare, and difficult to find.  They're definitely not listed on our Job Board, that's for sure.  When I do find them, they all seem to be part-time, or too far away, or involve heavy phones.   Answering phones and transcription are NOT compatible activities!

So I keep seeing LOTS of ads for Coders.  Obviously that would mean school.  Ick.  Being the hater of school that I am, I would want to be sure that's what I wanted to do, so I thought I'd see what all of you think of Coding as an alternative to MT work.

-  Have any of you worked in coding before, or are you currently in school to learn that profession? 

-  How hard would it be for a late-middle-aged MT to learn? 

-  Do you think coding is worth spending time in school to learn?  (i.e., Decent pay, not about to be offshored, etc.)

-  If you've done it or are learning, do you LIKE it?  Is it interesting?  Tedious?  Stressful?  Boring?  Rewarding in any way?

-  Are you learning it on-site, or at home?  How many hours per day are you devoting to your studies?  How long does it take to get credentialled?

Thanks in advance for any input you may have on this subject!

I have plenty of clients, no shortage of work. Recently I started picking up some extra legal transcription from a company who is swamped & always begging for help. It's not something I've had much opportunity to do and it's fun to do something different. But they're totally out of the technological loop. I bill all my clients by an Excel spreadsheet attached to an email, and I have a master spreadsheet set up that keeps track of all my invoices for me. They are the only ones who can't open it. I know they can because someone who used to work there could, but now they have a new person and no one there can open it. Of course they can probably right click and "open with" some kind of viewer, but why is it my problem to teach them that? (here's where the "am I being a total a$$ question comes in!)  I'm tired of their clueless clerk emailing me five times every time I send her an invoice asking me to resend it and having to respond "If you can't open it, it's not going to help to resend it."  Sure I can mail it, but why should I when I have plenty of other clients?  Do you think I'd be an a$$ for unceremoniously dumping them? would you do it in a quieter way and leave the door open for further work? 

They are so technologically out of the loop, it's not even funny. I asked them for an electronic copy of one of their style guides for easy searching, and they said they don't do that and they "don't keep" things.  They just have one hard copy they are xeroxing over and over.  I knew it was somewhere, it had obviously been typed it on a computer. It's a .pdf file on the web! Someone had downloaded it directly from the court's web site. They are supposed to provide me with the names of judges and attorneys on the tapes but they don't and I have to struggle to hear names and spell them phonetically or designate unidentified voices somehow so I can tell them apart and then go back and globally replace them when I hear the name or I'm sure of the spelling. This adds countless time to transcribing their cases AND THEY HAVE THAT INFORMATION. I've asked them for lists or links for judge's/attorney names so I can at least search when they don't give them to me.  No dice. I have since found good links on the web, of course.

I'm worried about getting in deeper with them, I'm not overly familiar with legal work and I'm just going to keep coming up against their not being able to provide me with the tools I need. Every time I have to find something for myself it's costing me money, obviously, being paid on production.  They annoy me and I seem to have a very low threshold for that.  But it's valuable experience and they are desperate, the owner won't be happy.  But she's as clueless as her staff.

... and what are "ambiguous line counts" (mentioned by someone who has a web site related to verifiable billing which I cannot for the life of me figure out).

I charge X amount for a 65-character line.  I take characters w/spaces, divide by 65 and voila, there's my line count.  How much more "verifiable" can that get?

Can someone explain to me what this means in case the person who mentions this doesn't ever reply to my question? 

Hi, I am new to the IC area of MT, having always worked for services before now.  I have a friend who wants me to type letters for her practice.  Is it usual to charge for the address and reference lines along with the body of the letter?  Makes quite a big difference in the line count.  Thanks!

and Tessier's The Surgical Word Book, 3rd edition.  Books you could buy used I would say would be Stedman's Pathology and Lab Medicine and Cardiology/Pulmonary word book.  These are all the books I use the most during my day.  You could buy other speciality word books as you need them and could probably go used with those.

I wouldn't bother with buying a drug book, new editions come out every year and I just stick to the FDA website and RXList as my drug references.

Also FYI, not a book, but I use my Stedman's Electronic Medical Dictationary a lot.  It's easier to open the program than it is to pick up a huge 30-pound dictionary.

I just can't seem to make any money working at home with the kids talking to me constantly with transcipriton so I am thinking about switching to something I don't have to listen to.  Maybe medical billing.  Any advice anyone? 

Thanks

I've had this account for about four months now.  They are very slow payers.  I originally was going to bill them once a month, but then decided to do bi-monthly.  I still haven't gotten payment from the 11/30 invoice, so I inqured today and the office manager said they are changing their billing process and I need to submit a monthly invoice.  I also wonder how long she would have went without paying the 11/30 invoice if I hadn't of called. 

I figured they want a monthly invoice to make things a little easier on their end like they want to pay all their bills once a month.  I called her to verify what day she would like to be billed on/by and she said it doesn't matter.  I just need to put a due date on the bill, as she is making a folder with all their bills and paying the bills by their due dates.  I told her my bill is due upon receipt and she said that is fine just put the due date as the next day, which makes no sense to me because they have never paid sooner than three weeks.

Does this make sense?  It sounds to me like maybe the office is having money troubles and didn't want to pay my last invoice.  I remember an MTSO here saying that she gives her clients a percentage break if they pay within so many days.  Does this work?  All I want is my money and fast.  I have bills to pay too.

I appreciate any ideas or thoughts regarding this subject.  Thanks!

PS - I personally know the MT who had this account before me and they never paid late.  She always received the check within a couple days after receipt of her bill.  I just don't get it.

If billing by bytes do you divide this by say 65 (standard line), same as for characters?  Thanks so much.

Can anyone give me a good program to invest in that would allow me to keep a line count and also provide invoices? Also, is there a recommended HIPAA approved transferring site to transfer files through the net? Thanks a bunch!