What is a Medical Billing Specialist?
A medical billing specialist is someone who works with a medical office and is in charge of the companys medical billing. If you desire to be a medical billing specialist then accuracy and attention to detail is a must as you will most likely be in charge of claims processing, charge entry, and billing and collections. However, most medical offices will hire someone to do more than just be in charge of medical collections. They will want someone to be more of a medical assistant as well. Job duties will then expand to include things like:
- Accounts payable, payroll and banking tasks
- Prepare and maintain patient charts
- Schedule appointments
- Receive and make phone calls
- Perform insurance verification, pre-authorize and referral duties
New Medical Billing Diagnosis Codes Effective 10/1/2004The new ICD-9 diagnosis codes went into effect on October 1st, 2004. In the past years, we had a three month grace period to use the new and revised codes. This year in 2004, CMS eliminated the grace period. This is very important because it means medical claims are going to be denied if you have not updated your diagnosis codes. If you have not already, you can view or download the 2004 code updates by visiting
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medlearn/icd9code.asp Those interested in the proposed new diagnosis coding sytem, ICD-10-CM, being developed as a replacement for ICD-9-CM, volumes 1 and 2, should visit
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd9.htmbr> Melissa Clark is co-author of the ..
How do I become a Medical Billing Specialist?
Most businesses will require you to either have several years of experience working as a medical assistant or some kind of advanced certification as a medical assistant. There are several programs out there to help train and educate you to become a medical billing specialist. By doing a Google search for medical billing specialist you should be presented with a lot of options to help guide you to becoming a certified medical billing specialist. There are programs that you can complete online and at your own pace. Others require you to attend some classes for a couple of semesters. In my search I found many of the programs to cost around $1000 but some were as much as $6500.
Is it worth it to become a medical billing specialist?
The medical industry is experiencing a tremendous demand for individuals knowledgeable in medical office operations. Medical billing specialists are one of the fastest growing professions and are currently a very high demand job. According to the American Medical Association, there are over 1.2 million Medical Specialists in the United States. If you are interested in this kind of profession, it would be to your advantage to learn more about it.
What about outsourcing?
Because of the time and meticulous accuracy that medical billing requires, there are some companies that only specialize in being a medical billing specialist. Medical offices outsource all of their medical billing practices out to these companies rather than hiring an in-house specialist to manage their medical billing needs.
Is there software that can do everything a Medical Billing Specialist can do?
There is yet another solution to managing your medical billing needs. Companies such as AdvancedMD provide a software solution to be your medical billing specialist. An advantage for a medical office to go this route might be that it will be cheaper in the long run to have software to manage all of their billing needs. Also the electronic medical billing specialist will be less prone to errors unless they are due to a human entry error.
As you can see there are many solutions to help you to better manage your medical office. There are advantages in every category; it just depends on what will be the best fit your office. If you are thinking about becoming a medical billing specialist, I feel that it is worth looking into as it is a very high demand job. However, you should be aware that with alternatives out there, like outsourcing and medical billing software, you might have a little competition.
Medical Billing Companies: An Overview -
Every healthcare provider, including dentists, surgeons, doctors, or chiropractors, is entitled to receive money for their services. Medical billing companies are setup to make it easier for them to wade through the murky waters or regulation and insurance company code to ensure proper and timely reimbursement.
Employees trained by medical billing companies are trained to understand health insurance and the healthcare industry in all its complexity. Their individual responsibilities are then to bill patients and insurance companies based on the proper codes according to their superbill ..
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Nielsen is a client account specialist with 10xmarketing - More Visitors. More Buyers. More Revenue. For more information about medical billing specialist, visit http://www.AdvancedMD.com
Mike NielsenWhat you should know about a Medical Billing Specialist
