medical coding training at home.
When it comes to medical coding, you have two fairly separate groups of medical coders:
1. Individuals who do medical coding for hospital ER's, physicians offices and private clinics. Generally, these are referred to as 'Outpatient Medical Coders'.
2. Individuals who do medical coding in large hospitals. These people are usually referred to as 'Inpatient Medical Coders'.
Those who have a desire to enter the medical coding career ought to know the difference between the two types of medical coding. This might be best understood through example.
Say you have a procedure performed that forces you to be admitted to the hospital and stay overnight- this medical coding activity will require the expertise of an inpatient medical coder. Say you have a procedure performed on a same-day basis and are not admitted to the hospital for an overnight stay then it is an outpatient event and is typically assigned to an outpatient medical coder.
Several surgeries that used to require admission to a hospital are at the present being performed consistently on an outpatient basis - this means they go in and have the surgery and return home the exact same day without actually being admitted to the hospital.
As you might expect, there is a significant difference in the skill set required to apply medical codes to complex inpatient operative reports vs. the level of expertise required to apply proper medical codes to a report for a cut or a stubbed toe in a clinic setting.
In truth, the majority of medical coding is outpatient. The trend is for physicians and hospitals to perform progressively more of their procedures on an outpatient basis.
Most entry-level medical coders will start their careers by performing outpatient medical coding.
Outpatient medical coders who have been trained on the job generally rise to inpatient medical coding. This produces a plethora of opportunities for advancement over time.
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medical coding training at home.