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Career and Salary Prospects With a Billing and Coding Degree
Working as a doctor or nurse is certainly one way to have a career in the medical field, but if you’re not interested in working as a caregiver or want to get started a little more quickly, there are other jobs you can consider as well. For example, another option you have is to work in medical billing and coding, where you’ll work with health care providers to bill insurance companies and patients for the care received. If this sounds like an interesting career option for you, here’s what you need to know about your career and salary prospects with a billing and coding degree.
Becoming a Medical Biller/Coder
To work in this field, you need either a diploma or an associate’s degree, which prepares you for the tasks you’ll do on a daily basis as a medical biller/coder. You can also sit for the state exam in this field to earn certification, though this is not a legal requirements in all areas. Classes to become a worker in the medical billing and coding field typically last 12 to 18 months.
Tasks as a Medical Biller/Coder
When patients see a doctor, the services rendered are noted on their patient records, along with other pertinent information, such as whether or not the doctor referred them to a specialist. Working i medical billing and coding, it will be your job to properly catalog the services using a five digit procedure code that is standard in the United States. The insurance company is then billed according to the code, and someone at this company will accept or reject the claim. The rejection rate is high due to the complexity of this system, so it will be your job as a medical biller/coder to review rejected claims and re-code/bill as necessary.
Potential Employers and Salary
Some health care facilities employee workers in a medical billing and coding department, so you could work directly for a hospital, nursing home, physician office, or other facility. Another option is to work for a medical billing service, where you’ll work with claims from lots of different facilities who farm the work out to third parities rather than having employees on the payroll for this task. In either case, according to reports, the average salary for this job is $30,610, with the most experienced and highest paid employees earning upwards of $50,000 annually.