medical coding training at home.
Entry Level Medical Billing Jobs - Learn from a work at home mom's experience medical billing coding jobs from home. What kind of salary to expect and how to get trained. Are home medical billing jobs for real?
What does a Billing Specialist do?
Basically everything involved getting a doctor or other health care professional paid for their services. This is payment from the insurance carrier and the patient.
The knowledge and skills necessary are:
An attention to detail
- Multitasking
- Math and data entry
- Understand of insurance plans
- Understanding of medical terminology and coding
- Familiarity of medical billing guidelines
- Data Entry - Entering claim information and posting insurance and patient payments.
- Creating claims - Both Electronic and Paper CMS-1500.
- Collections - Patient Billing and unpaid insurance claims.
- Filing and retrieving medical billing records
- Write Appeals - Write a letter to the insurance carrier requesting payment for a denied claim.
- Responding to Patient Billing Questions - Answer questions from patients after statement are sent out.
- Run Reports - Typically pre-formatted in the medical billing software.
Salary
Starting salaries in medical billing and coding are typically in the mid $20,000 per year with experienced billing specialists earning well into the $30,000 and higher with good experience and credentials. With coding experience and good managerial skills this could be higher.
Those with more credentials would typically work for a large practice, hospital, or insurance company. With the more advanced certifications offered by AAPC or AHIMA and some experience you could expect to earn $30-40,000/year range. This of course can vary a lot depending on location and employer.
If you're pursuing a job in a setting such as a hospital or insurance company, a certificate or degree from an accredited institution and certification is a big plus. Generally the more training and credentials you have, the more your income potential.
Training
You can spend anywhere from $300 to $15,000 and take anywhere from 2 months to 2 years medical billing and coding training.
Training from a reputable accredited school can cost anywhere from a few thousand to over $15,000 - either online or in a conventional classroom. These can vary from a full blown associates degree to a less demanding diploma or certificate program. Or you can do like I did and train yourself
I really didn't have the time or money to take a formal course. And I wanted to learn it all as fast as possible. At the time I was raising 2 small kids the going to a formal classroom wasn't a good option. I knew someone who started a successful medical billing business and found out how they got started. They had all the business they could handle and were doing quite well. Starting a business - as soon as possible - was my goal.
My Experience - Medical Coding and Billing From Home
Really the only options for medical billing jobs from home are to have your own billing business or be employed by a really trusting and understanding boss - either at a billing company or practice.
Medical billing jobs from home are possible due to the nature of the work. However you do have to be in touch with insurance companies, patients, and healthcare providers. However most of this can be done by phone, fax, and email.
A lot of the work I do at home can be done on any schedule as long as it's done promptly. There are some nights I can't sleep and I'll get up and work at 2:00 AM while my family is sleeping. Coding, entering and submitting claims, is something that can be done any time of day. I strive for 24 hour turn around for entering claims. The sooner my provider gets paid, the sooner I get paid.
The benefits of working from home are the flexibility to set your own hours, not having to pay for child care, and the tax advantages of a home business.
The disadvantages are that you have to be disciplined not to let it interfere with your home life. Depending on how many providers you serve, it could be quit busy. If you don't set boundaries, working from home can really interfere with your home life.
I moved my office to the basement of our house and that help tremendously in separating home and work. It's important to have practices in place to make sure all patient data is handled in compliance with HIPAA requirements.
Start Your Own Business
My experience starting and operating a medical billing business has been very rewarding. I won't mislead you and tell you it's easy. I don't think starting any business is easy. If you have the drive and perseverance, your income potential is up to you.
I've found a good balance in working from home and generating a comfortable income for our family. If I can do it with no formal education - anyone can.
medical coding training at home.