medical coding training at home.
If you're pondering a major subject area of study or you're considering going back to school to train for a new career, you might want to explore what health care degrees, diplomas and specializations have to offer. That's because, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 10 of the 20 fastest growing occupations in 2018 are expected to be in health care. Some health related careers, in fact, might only require an associate degree or less.
There's more to the medical field than nurses and physicians. There are professionals who work behind the scenes but hold important roles nonetheless. Likewise, there are many reasons students might want to consider health related degrees as a means of obtaining a sense of job security. They include:
Baby boomers are aging. Some 76 million Americans were born between 1945 and 1964 in the United States alone, and they are getting older. In April 2008, Science Daily reported on the Institute of Medicine's "Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce," which noted that there were increasingly more older patients with medical needs than there were professionals to tend to them. The Institute of Medicine report called for changes to the health system. Obtaining a health or medical degree and entering the health profession could help alleviate the shortage.
People are living longer. According to a March 24 report in ScienceDaily, in fact, they're living as many as 10 years longer than their parents. That's because of preventative measures and interventions, the ScienceDaily article noted. But while many people are entering old age in better health, they still end up experiencing effects, such as dementia, that require care, according to the article. This is where a health related degree that could lead to home care and nursing facility careers might prove helpful.
Technology overall is advancing. Some health care providers are investing heavily in information technology. That could produce a need for information technology specialists, network specialists and others with a college or university degree and, perhaps, medical or health specialization.
Patient records are going paperless. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included billions of dollars to help the medical providers move from paper records to electronic patient records. That means changes for the medical records and health information technicians such as medical coders and billing specialists. These professionals are responsible for maintaining patient files and assigning insurance codes to different visits, procedures and exams that indicate the amount of health insurance that might be reimbursed, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that medical degrees at the associate level should be sufficient for entry to the field.
If you're working toward a degree related to health with the thought that you're likely to work in a hospital, that too might change. There are provisions in health care reform that call for facilities such as community health centers. Some colleges and universities also are focusing on training registered nurses for work in primary care in rural communities.
medical coding training at home.