Are you great with numbers and have a keen eye for detail? If you have an analytical mind and love data analysis, you could be perfect for a career in medical billing and coding.
These skills are in demand, so if you’ve considered a career in the healthcare industry but prefer limited interactions with patients… then this could be the career for you!
A career in medical billing and coding can offer you:
- A flexible working schedule to suit your family commitments
- The potential ability to work from home
- To become a vital member of any healthcare team
- An impressive salary
- Excellent Career growth
- An opportunity to become your own boss
As a medical billing and coding specialist, you will serve as the bridge between your healthcare organization and the medical insurance claim providers. It is a role that ensures that patients can receive the treatments and care they need when they need it.
Speak to Blue Cliff College About a Career in Medical Billing and Coding Today!
What is Medical Billing and Coding?
Every time a patient interacts with the healthcare system, a record of their interactions is kept. These documents track the path of a patient’s medical history, which can include recording a patient’s:
- Displayed symptoms
- Doctors medical observations
- Diagnostic testing and patient diagnosis
- Required treatments and resulting outcomes
Using these records as a starting point, medical coders convert this information into alphanumerical and numerical codes. In order to ensure coverage of medical care, these codes are sent to insurance companies for review and pre-authorization.
Medical billing and coding duties provide a critical connection between medical facilities and insurance companies. Correct analysis and submission can help prevent delays in a patient’s treatment. It also ensures prompt payment of the resulting insurance claims to the medical service providers.
How Do You Become a Medical Biller and Coder?
The great news is you can fast-track to a new career as a certified medical biller and coder in just one year!
Blue Cliff College’s program for medical billing and coding provides the opportunity to earn a diploma in Health Information Management, Billing, and Coding (HIMBC). These courses teach you about both the medical requirements of the role, as well as the computer skills needed for medical billing and coding.
What Do You Study in Medical Billing and Coding?
Blue Cliff College’s HIMBC program is designed and run by industry experts, providing both theoretical and practical hands-on experience in medical billing and coding.
Through classroom instruction and an externship program, Blue Cliff College’s HIMBC course provides students with training in:
- Pharmacology, anatomy, and physiology
- Medical terminology
- Diagnostic and procedural medical coding
- Various Medical billing and coding software applications
- Insurance claims processing
- Law, ethics, and record management
Mastering the required medical billing and coding skills through the theoretical and practical elements of the program provides you with a solid platform to undertake the certification exam. These are also the skills that healthcare employers actively seek out when hiring HIMBC graduates.
What is the Career Outlook of a Medical Biller and Coder?
By choosing a career as a medical biller and coder, not only will you benefit from the flexible working hours and the potential option to work remotely. The profession also has a strong career outlook and offers financial stability.
Due to the importance of medical billing and coding to the healthcare system, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is forecasting a 9 percent growth in this employment sector. Projecting 34,300 openings each year, on average, over the decade¹.
Not only that, but the BLS has also calculated that the median annual wage for a medical biller and coder is $44,090, with the top 10 percent earning more than $73,370².
Where Can You Work as a Medical Biller and Coder?
A career in Medical billing and coding allows you to work in a variety of workplace environments.
With the wide range of healthcare facilities requiring medical billing and coding professionals, the prospect of selecting a preferred niche is available to you. Some of the most popular workplaces where these skills are in demand are:
- Hospitals and government facilities
- Private clinics and practices
- Insurance and medical billing companies
- Rehabilitating and long-term care facilities
- Sports clinics
- Law offices
Many of these venues can provide flexible rotas, part-time hours, and the option to work from home. So, it is easy to see why it is one of the most popular occupations within the healthcare industry.
What are a Medical Biller and Coder’s Career Options?
After joining the workforce as a medical biller and coder, you can keep climbing the career ladder with further experience, continued education, and certification. Many graduates advance to become certified Health Information Technologists, advanced Medical Registrars, and Technicians.
According to the BLS, these advanced positions have a median annual wage of $51,840, and where the top 10 percent earn more than $105,690³.
Start Your New Career in Medical Billing and Coding Today!
Blue Cliff College’s HIMBC diploma can pave the way for a successful career in medical billing and coding. Learn in-class and online with our Blue Cliff College hybrid course options too.
You can also study around your work and family commitments with our flexible schedule options:
- 12 months of day classes
- 15 months of evening classes
Blue Cliff College offers theoretical classroom-based learning combined with a practical externship for supervised real-world experience. Our expert instructors assist you in mastering the medical billing and coding skills necessary to take the certification exam and to excel in healthcare.
So, if you’re looking for a new profession with great salary prospects. One that can also provide you with flexible working arrangements in a superb range of workplace environments.
You can stop looking now because you have just found it!
Learn more about Blue Cliff College’s HIMBC Program here
Sources:
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/medical-records-and-health-information-technicians.htm#tab-6
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/medical-records-and-health-information-technicians.htm#tab-5
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/medical-records-and-health-information-technicians.htm#tab-5
