If you are starting your own business as a medical biller and coder, what kind of insurance do you need?

It might be tempting to say “not much,” especially if you are setting up a computer in a home office and working part time. But then you start to think. What would happen if your computer was lost or stolen and you were not able to keep working for a period of time? What would happen if a client who stopped by to see you slipped on your front steps and got injured?

According to the U.S. government’s Small Business Matters resource for small businesses, here are some kinds of coverage that you would be wise to consider before starting a small business of your own:

-     Home-Based Business Insurance – According to Small Business Matters, homeowners’ insurance policies generally do not cover home-based business losses. While you may be able to add property damage riders to your policy, you may need to purchase additional policies to cover other risks, such as general and professional liability.

-     Commercial Property - This covers losses and damage of company property due to fire, smoke, severe weather, vandalism, and other events. It can cover lost income, business interruption, buildings, computers, company papers and even money that you have on hand.

-     General Liability - This insurance can provide protection against accidents, injuries and claims of negligence.

-     Professional Liability - If you provide a service, this insurance protects against malpractice, errors, and negligence in the services you provide to your customers. (Let’s say, for example, that a client incurs a loss because of errors you made.) Some state governments require certain professions to carry such a policy. To check your state’s requirements, click here.

Where can you find out more about the coverage you need? Speaking with an insurance agent in your area can be a good place to start, since local agents are likely to be aware of state and local laws and legal precedents. The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, a not-for-profit professional organization, offers a “find an agent” service that you can search online.

If you are thinking about taking a course in Medical Billing and Coding or are already in a course or working in the field, then you should be thinking about becoming a Certified Professional Coder with the American Academy of Professional Coders.

Certifications allow medical billers and coders to validate their knowledge and expertise in various medical environments. It will also help you earn approximately 20% more than non-credentialed coders, according to the American Academy of Professional Coders.

These credentials are nationally recognized by employers, physician societies and government organizations.

Being credentialed may also give you and your employer more confidence in your ability to capture lost revenue for the payment risk and protect their practice from unfavorable audits.

As a credentialed billing and coder, doors may open up for you faster in:

•  Physician offices or groups

•  Hospital-associated physician offices or groups

•  Health system-associated physician offices or groups

•  Home health agencies

• Physician groups at a university and or in a teaching setting

•  Compliance auditors or forensic auditors of physician claims

•  Physician billing services

•  Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC)

•  Outpatient hospital services not reimbursed by Ambulatory Patient Category (APCs) groups

•  If you are a consultant, educator, legal counsel, physician or other care-giver seeking a credential to demonstrate your command of outpatient medical billing and coding for physician services.

So get certified today if you are working in the field. If you are taking a course, be sure to take the certification exam shortly after your course is complete. There are also preparatory classes offered to help you prepare for the certification examination. Do it for yourself. This is a great accomplishment and will bring much more value to your degree.

This is a wonderful and exciting time to be entering the allied health field.  No matter what work setting you are in, allied health professionals are in demand.  As costs continue to rise, there are greater demands for improved quality and safety in patient care.  To tackle these problems, the U.S. healthcare system is turning to technology.

Why do allied health students need to know about electronic medical records? The answer is simple – because you will use electronic health records to accomplish tasks once on-the-job.  The transition from paper records to electronic health records affects everyone working in health care today.  Consider just a few examples of the changes electronic health records bring to these jobs:

• Medical assistants enter patient information, such as vital signs, into the electronic health record.
• Coding professionals review electronic documentation in the electronic health record to determine the appropriate code for an encounter.
• Technicians working in blood and chemistry labs, radiology, nuclear medicine, cardiovascular medicine and other areas respond to electronic orders and send test results electronically using an electronic health record.
• Billing professionals use information in the electronic health record to prepare insurance claims and patient statements. Read the rest of this entry »

While America’s eventual transfer to electronic medical records (EMR) is a foregone conclusion, the ways in which we accomplish the shift is still being debated. The key is to create a system that makes doctors’ lives easier, and not more difficult. To achieve this goal, medical coding professionals are crucial to the future of electronic medical records.

The most logical interface to aggregate all medical records is the internet. Individual computers that contain medical record information is a method of the past; to maintain all medical records – a  huge amount of  information – a web-based system is the only option capable of immediately updating and maintaining the digital system.

Aside from changing a paperwork-based system that has become standard practice for them, doctors are often times unfamiliar with the pages of coded medical terms that are central to electronic medical records. This is another obstacle that stands in the way of the full adoption of digital health records, and highlights the necessary inclusion of medical coding professionals in healthcare facilities.

Professionals who are trained and experienced in medical coding facilitate the full implementation of electronic medical records. President Obama guaranteed that every American medical record will be electronic by 2014; this means huge job growth for medical billers and coders. Read the rest of this entry »

According to a December 30, 2009 article in the NY Times, entitled “Bonus Planned for Digital Medical Records”, Medicare officials have outlined a plan to reward medical offices and hospitals that maintain systems of electronic medical records. Under the proposed stimulus, billions of dollars will be handed out across the country to healthcare providers that keep updated digital medical records of their patients. The announcement is just a proposal, however, and the plan does not expect to be completed until the spring.

The article features a quote from David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology, who says that “Widespread adoptions of electronic health records holds great promise for improving health care quality, efficiency, and patient safety”.

The proposed plan will provide bonus payments to health care professionals who use electronic medical records for at least 80 percent of their medical instructions. These incentives will facilitate America’s full transfer to electronic medical records, which President Obama has promised by 2014.  According to Obama administration officials, using digital health records will reduce costly medical errors and duplicate testing.

The national implementation of electronic medical records will also result with a high demand for healthcare technology professionals, such as medical billing and coding specialists, who can help medical offices and hospitals maintain these systems of electronic medical records.

CNNMoney.com released an interactive slideshow that provides several different key factors in locating and getting hired at the job that you want. The presentation, created by Jia Lynn Yang in April, 2009, is called “How to Get a Job”, and is “an interactive guide to navigating the worst job market of your lifetime”.  We have broken down the guide into five major points that you should follow in locating, and securing, the right job for you.

Target Your Search

When searching for a job it is very important that you narrow down your options so that you are applying to positions that best fit your skill set. You should apply to places at which you are well-suited and will thrive, making you an obvious choice for the position.

Leverage Your Networks

After you locate a potential employer, reach out to anyone you know who can prepare you for the interview. The more advice you get from people in, or with knowledge of, the industry, the better off you will be. Do your own research as well, so you enter the interview as prepared as possible to impress the interviewer, and convince them that you are right for the job.

Match Your Skills to Their Needs

Once you familiarize yourself with your potential employer, and what they are looking for in an applicant, make sure you cater your resume and experiences to meet their specific needs. If you are applying for a job as an administrative assistant in a medical office (like many billers and coders do), be sure to focus your discussion on your strong organizational and administrative skills. Optimizing your selling points and resume to meet the needs of your employer will go a long way in getting hired. Read the rest of this entry »

Senator John Kerry recently introduced “The Small Business Health Information Technology Financing Act of 2009″, a piece of legislation aimed at aiding family doctors switch to electronic medical records. The Act would make family doctors and other small medical practices eligible for Small Business Administration loans that would cover the costly transition from paper to digital health records. As a senior member of the Finance Committee and former Chairman of the Small Business Committee, Kerry is committed to helping President Obama achieve his goal of digitizing all  American health records  by 2014.

“Electronic medical records and prescriptions are the common sense solution to restricting costs, reducing errors, and reforming a broken system,  Kerry said. “Doctors don’t need convincing — they’ve seen the results.  This legislation helps small practices acquire the technology that will allow them to be more efficient and to focus on patient care.”

Kerry is not a newcomer  to healthcare technology legislation; in 2007 he introduced the Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection  Act of 2007, which required physicians to employ electronic prescription technology.

Doctors and nurses are at the forefront of patient care, and receive most of the attention associated with running a medical office. Behind the scenes, however, medical and billing and coding specialists serve vital roles in maintaining a successful healthcare facility.

Here is a quick rundown of some of the responsibilities of medical billers and coders:

• Run the software and systems that help keep our healthcare network going
• Process critical claims and medical records
• Code medical and surgical procedures using proper terminology
• Collect payment from patients and insurance companies
• Validate patient insurance information

With billions of dollars being invested into healthcare technology and America’s imminent transfer to exclusively electronic medical records, billing and coding professionals will become increasingly vital to healthcare facilities throughout the country. As more healthcare facilities undertake an electronic medical record system, there will be an increase in job openings for medical billing and coding professionals, a claim supported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:

It states that employment levels of medical records and health information technicians are “expected to increase by 18 percent through 2016 – faster than average for all occupations”. The report continues by saying that these professionals “will be needed to enter patient information into computer databases to comply with Federal legislation mandating the use of electronic medical records”.

Medical billing and coding professionals represent a small niche of a large medical community. Most healthcare professionals must possess great communication skills and have the ability to interact with all types of people. Medical billing and coders are unlike most healthcare professionals; they spend the majority of their days by themselves, often times never interacting with anything except their computer. Billing and coders excel in controlled settings where they can code all day without any interruption, and normally are content working by themselves for hours at a time. For these reasons, it is even possible for billing and coders to work from home. While they are unlike most medical professionals, billing and coders fill a necessary slot in the medical community.