Archive for March 2010
Remember that the medical records you are building and delivering are legal records. It must be factual an accurate. You want to be as precise and concise as possible while also providing clear and comprehensive information. You may record your observations but not your interpretations. You may also quote a patient, but make sure it is the direct quote. Never take things out of context. Always follow the above easy tips and your documentation will be a huge asset to the caregivers you are providing records for. Be accurate and honest. Document in a timely manner – the caregivers have been careful to document only during or after they provide care; as a medical billing and coding specialist you should honor the time guidelines as well. Always meet your deadlines. Provide complete information regarding the caregiver’s assessment, nursing diagnosis, nursing interventions, and the plan of care, and evaluation of outcomes; be sure it is legible and if an allied health care professional has recorded something that is unclear or cannot be deciphered, to follow up and verify what the correct information is to be recorded. Always be sure all information is correct, complete, and dead accurate. Like I said……these could be used as legal forms later. Never record things ahead of time, and don’t document something until it has been done. Then document it be accurate with your time frames. Erroneous documents can have the same ramifications as other areas. Medical Billing and coding training shows that this field requires persons who are self mangaged. This Allied Health Field provides the top professionals with the opportunity to work independently. If you are found to do an outstanding job on all of your records, and meet deadlines accoding to when they have been set, the opportunity for success in the medical billing and coding field are plentiful.
There are many state particular requirements in the Allied Health Field of Medical Billing and Coding….so we have decided to look at each state specifically; The first one being Alabama. In the state of Alabama, potential students will find vast opportunity. Since Medical Billing and Coding is such a quickly growing field in the medical industry, more opportunities in all states have been increasing. There are choices to become nationally certified in this area on a national level or potential medical Billing and Coding students can learn the skills on a more local level. The education that best suits your needs will depend on your goals, and what kind of organization you are hoping to be employed by. Those hoping to perhaps go into management or open their own Medical Billing and Coding service would be wise to take some entrepenurial business development classes that are offered by some of the medical billing schools in Alabama. These could be taken along side/in addition to the standard medical billing and coding classes that are required.
Some of the medical billing and coding skills students can expect to learn in local or online classes are the medical codes and terms that are universally used to define, tests, illnesses, cost, types of procedures and diagnosis. Their are codes and terms outlined, almost like its own language. This was developed to better enable all languages to communicate with one set of standards. Medical billers and coders are expected to know and understand the terminology of the medical profession. Medical billing schools in Alabama provide this training.
There are many different roles for nurses. Inside the hospital arena, the include, but are not limited to, administrators, nursing directors, nursing informatics, quality and utilization specialists, clinic managers, clinic specialists, supervisors, staff educators, I.V. specialists, phlebotomists, nurse anesthetists, rehab nurses, lactation specialists, midwives, surgical nurses, and staff nurses. There are probably some that I missed, but you get the idea. Outside the hospital there are many other roles, such as clinic nurses, office nurses, school nurses, forensic nurses, industrial nurses, case managers for insurance companies and worker’s compensation, private duty nurses, hospice nurses, home health nurses, dialysis nurses, child birth educators, flight nurses, legal nurse consultants, wound ostomy nurses, military nurses, diabetic educators, clinical research nurses, and sales reps for drugs and medical supplies. There are countless opportunities if you are looking to enter the nursing field. Sometimes you may encounter many different attitudes about nurses. One of them is the strong belief by some that only hospital nurses are “real nurses”. Another is that LVN’s and LPN’s are not really nurses at all and somehow inferior. All nurses perform an essential part of health care. Many times you will discover that a LPN may have impeccable bedside manners, and can set an example for all the nurses around them. Any kind of nurse can teach new nursing grads, or a physician how to perform the most technical procedures. There should never be a question about who is better, but rather who performs their job the best or in the most professional manner. The best nurses are the ones who see all nurses as necessary parts of the whole. A nurse who can recognize the contributions of each persons individual talents and skills that they bring to the team effort is the most effective. A nurse, no matter which kind, should work to make a difference in someone’s life everyday. Whether the nurse’s role is direct care or a supportive role such as in nursing informatics which is more behind the scenes, all roles are necessary and vital to providing patients with good health care.
If becoming a medical billing and coding specialist interests you, another allied health field you might want to consider could be Nursing Informatics. Nursing informatics and medical billing and coding have several similarities. Both of these professions increased in demand when the medical industry decided to make medical records of patients available to health care professionals over the internet. Beyond that, some of the other similarities follow, the first one being that nursing informatics is in the medical industry, but like medical billing and coding, does not carry the burden of direct customer service and relations. Another similarity with medical billing and coding is that, nursing informatics is a technical job that duties can and may be performed in an office setting or sometimes out of the home . It is not necessary for either nursing informatics specialists or medical billing and coding professionals to be present in the hospital or doctors office to perform their job responsiblities. The demand for nursing informatics, like medical billing and coding, is growing rapidly (as mentioned earlier) due to new expectations by the Federal Government for medical records to become computerized. Since the end goal is to have all patient information accessible on line, the growth has steadily increased with no end in sight. These two professions, medical billing and coding, and nursing informatics make it possible to achieve these goals.
Medical Billing and coding, nursing informatics and many other allied health fields end up working together to do their jobs. Another facet of the health industry that a medical billing and coding specialist, nursing informatics, or many other allied health fields will work with is LPN and LVN’s. Lets take some time to learn more about this high demand field. The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics has predicted that this field demand will grow 20% in the next eight years. In 2009 745,000 LPN’s and LVN’s were employed at hospitals, private care facilities, homes, doctors offices, and public health facilities. What does LPN and LVN stand for you ask? Well, they are essentially the same job with different titles. LPN is the acronym for Licensed Practical Nurse, and LVN is Licensed Vocational Nurse. One of the reasons why this job is so attractive to many who are pursuing careers in the allied health field is that the minimum requirement of education is an associates degree. In other words, a student can start working after being awarded with an associates degree. Although LPN and LVNs are not the highest paying job it can be an excellent starting point to get your feet wet. What better way is there to find out first hand what all the different professions do in a team of caregivers then by working at it first hand. If you are not sure which direction you would like to take this is an excellent jumping off point. Especially for medical billing and coding, or nursing informatics. The background information learned while on the job will enable individuals to be more successful in any field they decide to pursue in allied health.
Learn more about nursing informatics jobs.
The ANCC Informatics Nursing certification exam is computer based and contains 150 multiple-choice questions. There is a four-hour time limit given on this exam and it is offered at training centers across the U.S. Those who pass this exam are able to put RN-BC (board certified) after their name since they specialize in an area (nursing informatics).
In addition to the ANCC certification, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) also offers a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) certification. This certification has more of a project management/IT emphasis whereas the ANCC test focuses specifically on nursing informatics and how that relates to nursing in general. Most people choose the certification that best matches the area they work under. If they are in an IT department, they tend to prefer the CPHIMS certification. If they work under Clinical Informatics directorship they may prefer the ANCC certification. Also, the CPHIMS exam is open to all healthcare IT professionals, including the CIO, programmers, informatics specialists and consultants.
