Archive for April 2010
There are certain character traits that enable medical billing and coding specialists to excel at their jobs. Being detail is one of those skills that is a must. Since it is imperative that medical billing and coding specialists enter all the information from records correctly, this may be the most important characteristic; attention to detail. Information used by other health care professionals in the allied health field have an effect on patient’s lives. The information recorded dictates the medicine, healthcare or treatment provided to a patient. Attention to detail in the context of billing, is also important although it most likely won’t have hazardous effects. Given the often high-price of medical care, mistakes in the billing department of medical billing and coding could mean inaccurate billing for a patient or their provider, or it could mean lost revenue for the medical facility.
Each member of an allied health care team is allowed and expected to perform certain duties based on what specialty they studied in school, and level of education that was achieved. The license that each professional is granted and the specifics of the laws and regulations in each state that allied health teams are practicing in are set in place for good reason. Allied health teams care for patients and often times may have human life in their hands. Different jobs deal with patients differently whether it be directly/hands on such as is the case with doctors and nurses, or indirectly like medical billing and coding specialists, or nursing informatics. No matter what level of health care you are functioning at, it is always in your own best interest, as well as the patients’ best interest to understand each person’s scope of practice. If you are the aide or the LVN, you aren’t responsible for, nor expected to assess and analyze the data. If you are a medical billing and coding specialist and the data you receive is unclear, ask questions. It can be in everyone’s best interest to have an understanding of what each persons’ responsibilities may be and why they play an important part of the team. This can be especially important and helpful in the event of short-staffing. Concise communication is vital to quality patient care. As a medical billing and coding specialist, if you are ever in doubt, it is always best to ask for assistance or another opinion; always err on the side of safety. When dealing with medical records, which are considered legal documents, they can be accessed, assessed and utilized by many different members of an allied health care team. Never hesitate to clarify, or double check something that seems amuck. Medical billing and coding specialists are detail oriented professionals for a reason.
Basic computer skills are essential to almost any career now, and allied health fields are no exception. You will need word processing skills and a good understanding of how to research topics on the internet in order to survive vocational school, college, or any other allied health schools you may hope to attend. You will need word processing skills and a good understanding of how to research topics on the internet in order to survive college or vocational school. Health care is rapidly becoming automated, from programmable pumps for IV’s to computerized medical records. A comfort level in utilizing computers is essential for anyone pursuing a nursing career today. Technology is going to rapidly come to the forefront of efforts to improve patients’ safety and access to health care and outcomes, as well as to contain costs. The internet can provide you with all sorts of information, such as the latest new on recent discoveries about diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes. You can access information about support groups and organizations that support research. You can find information about health care legislation being proposed, and voted on, you can join listservs, and receive updates and discussions via e-mail. Just make sure that the sources for your information are well known and qualified.
Take the opportunity to attend any workshops, in-services, and classes offered in your community or facility that interest or pertain to you and the profession of medical billing and coding. If a seminar is being offered that is applicable to your particular job description or allied health team, ask your supervisor if you can attend as a represenative of your facility. Become active in your facility by providing other medical billing and coding coleagues, staff educators, with ideas and requests for improvement. Volunteer to sit in on committees to choose and run in-services and seminars. As you find valuable resources and information pertienent to your job, share them with co-workers and provide a copy to staff educators. They are almost always open to new ideas and subjects. Sometimes your facility will even pay for your fees to continue your education. They may reimburse you for any seminars or classes you attend. You may have to report back to a small group or make a larger presentation in you facility in return, but this can be a wonderful opportunity to expand your horizons, get out of your comfort zone and get to know the people you work with better. I have found that when you look for opportunities to give to the people around you, it not only makes them feel good, but it makes you feel good as well. When an allied health team in a facility has an open, accepting, giving attitude it makes work more enjoyable for the entire team and boosts morale in the work place.
Once you become a medical billing and coding specialist be sure t remain current in the field. Take the opportunity to attend workshops, and subscribe to medical journals that might interest you. Read everything you can about subjects you might feel weak in. If you work on an allied health team, subscribe to e-mail groups and blogs like this one, to keep you up to date. There are even chat rooms available where you can meet other medical billing and coding specialists to share interests, or discuss issues. Join organizations and look for local chapters in your area to attend events and seminars. Take the opportunity to attend any workshops, classes, or in-service seminars offered by your facility or local health care operations. Tune in to a new program every day whether its on television or the radio. Stay current with political climates and issues that may affect your community and the world. Have an understanding of what stimulates and affects the people around you at work or in your social settings. Be a responsible member of your community. Know whats going on. Keep up-to-date with healthcare in your area, and the new health care bills. These issues may directly affect where you work, how you work, and who you work with. It may change regualations and rules. Be sure and vote on any bills that you support or decline so that you are an active participant in the future of allied health as a whole. It pays to be involved at work, in your community and the people around you.
If you are a medical billing and coding specialist, and you have gained a certain level of regard for your work, perhaps you are ready to start your own business. If you currently work from home, and have a portfolio of your own clients, perhaps you are ready to hire new medical billing and coding specialists to work through the daily tasks, in place of you. In this case, you would spend a majority of your time running your medical billing and coding business, rather then doing the actual work. It is never too big of a dream. Whatever your future interests may be, it is important to remember that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. Perhaps you are just starting out and trying to decide which is the best path for you to take to become a medical billing and coding specialist. There are a variety of paths and methods you can employ to start at square one. I have found that it is highly motivational to establish and envision your dreams so you know where you would like to end up. Would you rather work at a facility or for an employer? Some students that study medical billing and coding just want a simple job that pays well and is secure. In this case, there is less stress associated with the job because you only have to worry about completing each day’s tasks efficiently. Then there are the professionals who want to self manage and work from home. In this case, it is pertinent to at least gain your own clients. There is more pressure in this case, but also added freedom. The final scenario of owning a facility adds management to the responsibilities above. Which combination describes your dreams? At www.alliedhealthworld.com or even with the “Find a school” button on the right of our blog….you can start whichever journey best suits you.
Medical Billing and Coding is being outsourced more and more. If you are planning to become a medical billing and coding specialist you may be working in a medical facility such as a hospital, or doctors office, but more and more the jobs for medical billing and coding are being oursourced. In addition to medical facilities you may actually be working for a medical billing and coding facility or organization that specifically does the medical billing and coding for a number of allied health organizations. Perhaps you are interested in starting your own facility? There is always the option, after you have gained experience and reliabiltity, that you could branch off and own your own business doing medical billing and coding for a variety of offices and businesses. If owning your own business interests you, medical billing and coding, much like accounting or lawyers is very conducive. All you really need to start your own medical billing and coding business is a computer, somewhere to work from (like your home or an office space), the knowledge, and the clients. Once you have become established and gained more client trust you can even hire employees to work along side of you, or work from their homes. Hiring employees is much different then being your own business because in this case, you will be held responsible for their work. Sometimes it can be hard to monitor or be held accountable for other peoples’ work. In this case you would probably spend most of your time managing others. However, if you have done medical billing and coding for awhile, it may be an attractive idea to apply your expertise in this way.
As a medical billing and coding specialist, you have an obligation to protect patient privacy. With these confidential records, you have an obligation to protect the records in your posession from being seen by wanyone who has no need to know. That means not leaving electronic records open when you leave your seat by the computer, it means not leaving patient chats out unattended for anyone to view. Remember that your patients have public lives as well as private ones. Their neighbor might seem very concerned, but to the patient most likely, she could be a nosy gossip monger. Your patients most likely live in this community. They are teachers and lawyers and real estate agents. The middle school physical education teacher doesn’t need to broadcast that he has had prostate surgery; the prominent lawyer has the right to conceal his HIV status; and the award winning realtor doesn’t need clients to know she has frequent bouts of crohn’s disease and is considering an ileostomy. Neither do they need to have their idiosuncrasies of coping shared with the community. Always keep patient information confidential. You never know how they feel about their condition, and what boundaries they have as human beings. I remember once when I was at the pharmacist picking up a perscription that I was self conscious about, I was easily embarrassed by how loudly she was talking. Everyone in our radius could hear, and it was the pharmacy next to my gym. Each patient’s records are confidential and special. As a medical billing and coding expert it may be difficult to remember when dealing with so many files on a daily basis. It will help you to stand out if you excel in this area.
Medical Billing and Coding is a new and exciting profession that it rapidly growing in the Allied Health Field. Join your professional organizations and become involved after you have earned your certification. Just becuase you have completed your education doesn’t mean that your work is done. You will find joining organziations will keep you abreast in the medical fields which you have chosen to excel. Find a co-worker interested in joining or learning more about continuing education so you can bounce new ideas and theories off of each other. You can attend meetings and seminars together. Branch out and meet a new friend to join your group at each organizational meeting. If you are shy, remember, everyone likes to feel included and share information. When you are at the office share any new knowledge you might have gained at a seminar or organizational meeting with bosses and co-workers in your own field and even in other fields. Become involved with committees at work and let your supervisor know you are interested in volunteering for activities withing the facility, and even in your community. Helping others can be one of the best ways to let go and forget about your own worries. Become a preceptor or a mentor to the new generation of student grads in your facility or you could help to tutor at the school you attended. Volunteer to help with students when they are assigned to your unit. This will not only provide you with any number of new and interesting friends and opportunities for new experience, but it will also make you known throughout your facility and community as an expert in your field. You will be seen as a valubale resource for knowledge on Medical billing and coding. These opportunities can also build your confidence and allow you to measure your success.
Nursing Informatics is a quickly growing allied health field that combines the knowledge of nursing with knowledge of technology. Since both of these professions are constantly changing, it is important for nursing informatics specialists to be open to new ways of doing things. You may have learned a specific technique for a procedure in shcool or learned that this technique replaces one commonly used in previous years. When you observe a nurse or technical expert using a different or possibly an attitude of “this is the way it should be done!” The “this is the way we did it in school” attitude is not always welcome. As long as there are several acceptable ways of doing something, none of which poses risks for the patient, your way is what you are most comfortable with and someone else’s way may be very different. If the patient or someon else in the profession asks, you should always explain that there are different methods to accomplish the same thing. If the patient expresses a preference, don’t take offense if he doesn’t choose your way, and don’t make a big deal about it if someone doesn’t like how you are handling things. Respect all co-workers and their diversity. If the other allied health professionals in your field use a technique that you consider obsolete, that may hinder you doing your job, or hurt a patient in the long run, calmly ask to speak to the person privately and then express your concerns by saying something like “maybe you haven’t heard this before but we were taught through new research says doing…..can cause harm to the patient, and then it should be done this way.” Remember to always give co-workers the benefit of the doubt and ask why they are doing the act you are questioning.
