Career as a Medical Coder

1. CAREER AS A MEDICALCODER SUMMARY: Coding accurately is not easy. The coder must carefully read the doctor’s and nurse’s notes to precisely determine the services received by the patient. The coder must also understand private payer policies and government regulations for accurate coding and billing. By some estimates, inaccurate or incomplete coding costs the doctors thousands of dollars each year in lost payments. Without competent coders, providers run the risk of losingrevenue. Medical coders spend their days reviewing medical records to assign these codes and ensure that the health care providers they support are properly reimbursed for services. Physicians and hospitals depend on accurate coding to receive proper reimbursement, making the role of the coder a valuedone. You can be a professional Clinical Research Associate/ Medical Coder with clinical research training. In the following article we shall be getting an overview of the career of a medical coder and the opportunities they areoffered. ACADEMICREQUIREMENTS: Earning a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree can strengthen a medical coder’s career; however, it’s not required to show proficiency. What is necessary is to have a solid foundation of anatomy, physiology and medical terminology education. If you want to pursue a career as a medical coder, you should complete a medical coding course ofstudy. Training in coding skills is available at many community colleges and through online learning centres. Most training programs can be completed in 18 to 24 months. Your course of study should prepare you to take a certification exam to become a certified professionalcoder. Certification lets employers know that you understand coding rules and have demonstrated a high level of accuracy in translating patient charts into correctly coded insurancebills. PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENTS: Medical billers and coders must verify that the patient data they deal with is secure atall times. Patient confidentiality is required by law, so medical billing and coding specialists must uphold security measures to make sure that all of the data they deal with issafe.

2. Knowledge of classification systems is one of the major requirements for medical billing and coding jobs. These specialists use universal codes to categorize all patient information. This data is used to help healthcare providers get reimbursed by insurance companies for their medical procedures. The codes are also used to standardize patients’ medical histories and treatment data for physicians’ records. This is especially helpful when multiple team members and/or specialists are involved in diagnosing conditions and treatingpatients. • Know more about clinical research coursesand various placementopportunities. • JOB OPTIONS: • Now is a very good time to look at a career in medical billing and coding. Not only are there a large number of job openings in coding and billing, many of these jobs are fairly lucrative. The field of medical billing and coding is growing as a result of a number of factors, chief among them being an aging population, an increasing focus on health data and informatics, and the digitization of health records. As the health care system turns increasinglyto • electronic health records, billing and coding specialists who are computer-savvy will have a leg up on the rest offield. • Careers in the medical billing and coding field could have a number of different job titles. They can vary based on the job responsibilities of the specific position. Some roles may have the same general job duties but different titles according to the employer or thelocation. • Management-level careers in this field may require additional education and/or work experience. Some of the job options in medical billing and codinginclude: • Medical Records Coordinator • Coder • Medical CodingSpecialist • Medical Billing Specialist • Medical Records Technician (or Medical RecordsTech) • Health InformationSpecialist • Medical Records Clerk • Health InformationClerk

3. Medical Records Analyst • Health Information Technician (or Health InformationTech) • Medical BillingManager • Medical RecordsDirector • The new skills attained in their professional journey will help the candidates advance in their careers and assume biggerroles.