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I forgot to add that Andrew's School has a 12-24 month program for medical coding--does anyone know if this is a good substitute for actually attending school. I can't go back to school at this time due to time and money. I have 3 degrees already, and don't wish to go back to campus!
I forgot to add that Andrew's School has a 12-24 month program for medical coding--does anyone know if this is a good substitute for actually attending school. I can't go back to school at this time due to time and money. I have 3 degrees already, and don't wish to go back to campus!
check out aapc.com and ahima.com
those are the 2 major sources for becoming a certified coder and a degreed coder and they can answer most if not all of your questions.
dont just sign up for anything, make sure to go to the source
like aapc.com and ahima.com and go from there. otherwise you will and can get ripped off.
Thanks for the input. Actually it was a toss up between going for my LPN or the medical billing and coding. They will both take around 2 years to complete. I originally wanted to go for my RN but that will take to long to complete so if I go for the LPN when I graduate I can take courses for the RN and still be making descent money. The only problem is, is I'm a CNA now and it's really depressing. I've only worked in a nursing home setting and it's just so sad. It was making me depressed all the time. I don't know....I'm so lost here!!!!
You can get an RN degree in 2 years with an AS. For example, Nassau Community College has a program. The BSN (Bachelors of Science in Nursing) only rates a few cents an hour higher in pay than the AS, so to me it's not worth spending all the extra time and money. Of course, the BSN is good to have for advancement opportunities. If I were seeking to become an RN, I would get the AS on my own and then get the BSN on the hospital's dime, since many give tuition reimbursement. Nursing still has a shortage, so you will get a job right out of school with an AS. Nursing is also a career you can take anywhere.
Another health care career that is good and does not take more than 2 years of education is respiratory therapist. Someone on here mentioned this and only seems to want to leave it because they want less and more flexible hours.
As for medical coding (and billing), it is very difficult to get a job right out of school with no experience. Your best bet is to get into a doctor's office as something else and learn on the job. As for working at home in medical coding, it is possible, but usually the person has already worked onsite somewhere. I don't know about working at home in billing. I think that is mainly done onsite. Someone mentioned the organizations aapc.com and ahima.com as a good source of information. When you go to their websites, you will note that there are a lot of certifications to get to be qualified in medical coding. Also note that they will certify people in India, etc., and that is bad news for Americans, as when it comes to salary, we cannot compete with those working remotely from 3rd world countries due to cost of living.
If you want a work at home and learn at home option, I would recommend medical transcription. Please note that a lot of it is and has been going offshore, mainly to India and the Philippines, but their productivity and accuracy really lags behind that of Americans and there is still a need for Americans to do medical transcription, edit and correct the work that comes back from offshore, and edit work from speech recognition software. I don't think at this point speech recognition software can replace a person because it needs to be "trained" to understand individual voices and speech patterns, plus it does not have a brain and can only guess when it comes to words such as "there, their," etc. Medical transcription in facilities like hospitals is dying out and they are outsourcing to MTSOs (medical transcription service organizations) and they mainly use workers at home in the US and Canada and for those that offshore outsource, workers in facilities (or at home) in other countries. The key to getting a job after learning medical transcription is to go to the right school! A lot of onsite schools and colleges may give the courses, but they cannot help you get a job and everybody wants to hire someone with at least 1-2 years of experience. The only two schools that can get their newbie medical transcriptionists jobs right out of school are online schools. Andrews is one of them and their website is Medical Transcription / Medical Coding. Andrews also teaches coding, but they are honest and will tell you they cannot guarantee you a job. However, their medical transcription program successfully places their grads on a consistent basis. The other school is Medical Transcription Education Center and their website is Medical Transcription Education Center, Inc. - Learn And Work From Home. These schools take around 1-1/2 years to complete if you are diligent about studying and once you get out of them, you will be prepared to work at home.
stay out of billing, it's a complete dead end and even with my decade plus of experience, true work from opportunities are few and far between and pay crap. Rarely do companies offer flex hours and unless you want to work MORE hours, room for advancement is null. There was a time when it was trending towards working at home but with HIPAA and all the electronic billing stuff, most companies prefer to do it either onsite or they hire a third party agency that also will do it onsite. And don't bother with schooling for it either, unless you're getting a coding certification out of it.. (And make sure it is a CODING certificate NOT BILLING. A cerified "Medical Biller" is a complete joke, a certified CODER is what is considered valuable). Most of what is involved in the billing and collection of medical bills is learned on the job due to the unique nature of each discipline. Hospital billing is very, very different than a pediatrician, and a pediatrician's billing is way different than a surgeon's.. It's high stress, low reward. And depending on what type of office you are in will dictate your responsiblities. In a large facility, like a hospital, you may end up just sending claims all day. In a small office you may have to also do coding and collections.
Transcription was being outsourced but has slowly been creeping back to the US like the previous poster mentioned.. the outsourced accuracy and productivity is seriously lagging. Coding can also be done at home IF and WHEN you get enough experience. You'll have to put in a few years in a couple of environments doing coding in order for most places to hire you. But again, no guarantees you'll EVER be able to work from home in coding.
If you wanted to be a pure coder and working for a consulting company that reviews medical records and looks for lost revenue, etc you can make 6 figures depending upon the coding specialty you develop.
I think you would also need auditing experience and in some cases an advanced degree in healthcare records, automation, etc., to rate that type of income.
I forgot to add that Andrew's School has a 12-24 month program for medical coding--does anyone know if this is a good substitute for actually attending school. I can't go back to school at this time due to time and money. I have 3 degrees already, and don't wish to go back to campus!
Andrews is an excellent school. However, they cannot and do not guarantee you will get a job once you take their Coding course. As for their medical transcription course, they have an excellent record of placing successful graduates in work at home jobs in an industry which typically will not hire a medical transcriptionist straight out of school, but requires 1-2 years of experience. As per my other post, MTEC is also a premier medical transcription school with an excellent record of placing their successful graduates.
Andrews is not accredited through AAPC or AHIMA, I would never spend that much money on a school who wasnt affliated with the institution I wanted to be certified through, but that is just one opinion.
Andrews is not accredited through AAPC or AHIMA, I would never spend that much money on a school who wasnt affliated with the institution I wanted to be certified through, but that is just one opinion.
I didn't know that. I only knew Andrews recently started teaching coding and since their medical transcription course is very well regarded among potential employers, assumed their coding course would be too. Good point! Part of being a successful coder is getting the right credentials from these organizations. Don't these organizations teach classes in coding themselves?
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