Friday, June 1, 2012

Medical Billing Careers - What is a Medical Billing Specialist


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If you've been thinking about a career in the medical office field you may have thought about becoming a medical biller or coder or a medical billing specialist. There is a high demand for people who have trained on the job or have taken medical billing training to work in medical offices.

The profession of Medical Billing Specialist is rapidly becoming one of the fastest growing careers and there is a lot of work available not only working in a medical billing company, but in doctors' offices who do their billing in house and some specialists start work-at-home medical billing businesses.

There are more than one million Medical Billing Specialists in the US. A Specialist must take a national exam to receive certification in the field. There are people who work as medical billers who do not have certification however. These are usually in-house people who have been trained by the company or doctor's office to do billing and/or medical coding.

What exactly is medical billing you might ask? When a patient is seen by a doctor or provider, a claim is coded, billed and processed. It is submitted to an insurance company or federal government agency.

Medical billers are good at detail and are well-organized. They may have knowledge or education in data entry, bookkeeping, technical or computer knowledge and work well with people. Although most medical billers work in back offices and don't have a lot of contact with the public.

There are a lot of different programs to choose from in a training program. You can find many online where you can learn at your own speed or you can go to classes at a local college or technical college for a semester or two to get all the course requirements and would not be as flexible but may have more credibility. You only want to take the courses that are needed.

You don't want to pay for courses that some of the online schools insist you take if you don't need them. Also be very careful about signing any contract, read them thoroughly. The programs range in cost from $900 to more than $7000. You'll still have to take the national exam if you want to be certified.

Becoming a Medical Billing Specialist can be a good choice if there are job openings in your area. Make sure to check around to make sure there are medical billing companies or doctors' offices that hire medical billers. Pay them a visit to find out what the working situation looks like and feels like. Talk to current employees to see if the company requires certification before they hire. It's a good way to find out if you'd enjoy the work. And make sure to check out the online resources.

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