Have You Been Tempted by the Medical Billing Salary Hustle?

Doubtless you’ve read many job advertisements dangling the lure of a very attractive medical billing salary but which give almost no useful information about what you really need to do to earn one. What you will frequently discover is that there is a great deal of misleading information regarding medical billing which is designed to persuade you that a highly lucrative career awaits you, particularly if you wish to work from home.

Generally, this is how it goes. You are either exploring on the Internet or checking the classified section of the local papers when you stumble across an advertisement regarding medical billing information. The advert informs you that the health-related sector is experiencing a great need and demand for more medical billing personnel prepared to handle claims processing, invoicing, and data processing for healthcare offices, clinics, practices, and even large hospitals. Now, this piece of the medical billing information they’re revealing to you is true at least. Demand in the healthcare market is indeed at an all-time high for professional medical billers and coders but what you must realize is that the pertinent word used is “professional”. What an employer is looking for is a fully qualified professional, skilled and competent in all aspects of medical billing

A further claim that these kinds of advertisements come up with is that the job needs virtually no working experience and you can get rich over night. This assertion is most definitely a misrepresentation of the true state of affairs. Medical billing requires experience and, if you don’t have that, then you must certainly be able to offer an employer evidence to show that you have completed an accredited training course successfully. Medical billing fraudsters require a fee that’s anywhere between $300 and $500 and in exchange for that, they will claim to furnish you with everything you need in order to get going with your own personal medical billing information business, including a software program, reference sheets, and a list of potential customers.

However, you will very quickly discover that only very few individuals who pay for medical billing information opportunities acquire clients and make money and only very few generate the offered substantial salary. And all this will definitely not happen in your first month of trading!

If you really want to earn a decent medical billing salary, you need to be dedicated, focused and posses the required industry standard qualifications, training and knowledge.

If you want to know how to avoid being scammed, here are a few things to bear in mind: You should request references and check with bona fide organizations dealing with medical claims processors to see whether they have these people listed on their databases. Similarly, checking with consumer protection agencies, the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General’s Office will quickly alert you to any potential scams.

Achieving your goal of earning a decent medical billing salary is certainly possible, you just need to go about it the right way. Gain the appropriate qualifications, work hard and offer employers what they are looking for and your desired lifestyle will be yours.

Earning a medical billing and coding salary is certainly a realistic goal but you must put as much into your career as you wish to get out of it and not fall for the scammers false promises.

Medical Coding Salary Rates in 2011

A Medical Coding Salary can be a more than satisfactory reward for carrying out an essential job and many people looking to choose medical coding as a career seek to find out what exactly they could earn in this profession before committing themselves.

Here’s an answer: Salary.com show in their statistics that the middle range of medical coding professionals (50% of all surveyed) earn between $38,058 & $49,906 each year. The top 10% currently earn $55,490 or more. Without doubt the  medical coding salary that can be earned is a big attraction to those wishing to enter the health care support industry.

You might be even more amazed to learn that these salary levels are being paid, almost exclusively, to women, who account for 93% of all medical coding employees. Their male counterparts only fill 7% of the available positions in this profession. Notwithstanding the fact that equal pay legislation has been in force for many years, women still experience lower pay levels than men in many jobs but in the medical coding professions, this does not seem to be the case.

Influencing Factors:

However, not every medical coder earning a medical coding salary will find that they earn the same amount of salary each month and this is down to the fact that there can be a number of influencing factors. You can generally find three main reasons for differing salary levels:

• Location
• Environment
• Education

Location: If your preference is to live and work in a large city, then you will be virtually guaranteed to enjoy higher salary levels. It won’t be a surprise to learn that the higher costs of living in a city or town will, inevitably, result in a higher salary level to take account of this. For example, in January 2011 a medical coder working in Chicago could earn an hourly rate of between $16 and $24, whilst an employee doing precisely the same job in Indianapolis would be hard pressed to crack the $17.50 mark as their top hourly rate.

Education: You can certainly carve out a career in the health care sector at just about every level of education. However, if your colleagues all hold a Masters Degree as a matter of course, your salary in that company will certainly be higher than if a 1-year certificate is the general requirement. It is a fact if life that even when comparing salary levels within a single specialty, you will find that those having higher levels of education will be the highest earners.

Should you hold a Medical Billing and Coding Certificate, your hourly rate range would be in the region of $10 – $15 but should you be a Certified Coding Specialist (CCS), you would expect to receive £$15 – $23 per hour. Definitely a significant difference, isn’t it?

A similar rule applies to the amount of experience you can bring to the job – the more experience you have, the more you will be able to earn when compared with someone new to the profession.Environment: This element is frequently tied to location as the size of health care organization worked for will determine the medical coding salary readily available to you. Usually, the larger the employer, the higher the rate of pay. A small-scale medical office of, say, 1-9 employees may well offer an hourly rate of between $12 – $17 where as a substantial organization of 5000 – 20000 employees will often offer an hourly rate range of $15 – $21.

But what ever your educational achievements are, where ever you might like to live and work, Medical Billing and Coding Salary rates are certainly worth checking out when considering which career path you might like to follow..

Medical Billing and Coding – A Definition of the Career

Medical Billing and Coding Defined

What images come to mind when you hear the words ‘medical billing and coding‘? This may be the first time you’ve heard the phrase but do you really understand what it means? What does a medical biller and coder do? Medical billing and coding is often a closed book when it comes to grasping the details.

The job of a medical biller and coder is to relive physicians and doctors of the need to keep up with their administrative needs of invoicing, record keeping and insurance claims. Most patients these days have health insurance providers to pay for their healthcare needs. Thus, in order for a physician or the healthcare provider to get paid, they need to file a claim for reimbursement fees for the services they rendered.This is where medical billing and coding comes in.

Medical billing and coding takes care of all the administrative requirements that ensure that services are invoiced and income is maintained, allowing healthcare providers and practitioners to get on with the business of treating patients. Medical offices, clinics, hospitals, health insurance companies, and many more seek the help of medical billing and coding professionals. And according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, this professions has a place in the list of the top 10 fastest growing occupations in the health industry.

Specialists in medical billing and coding are expert at what they do.. They are all highly trained so their skills are therefore much valued by the healthcare community. Medical billers and coders are compensated according to their level of training, experience, skills, and how effectively these skills are used. There have been reports that the average annual salary range for medical billers and coders is between $33,370 and $415,061. These sorts of salaries make training for a career in medical billing and coding a very attractive prospect.

However, don’t be fooled into thinking that medical billing and coding is an easy career to get into. It is a job that requires expertise and highly specialized skill on a field where the scope is broad, encompassing billing and accounts receivable, medical office management, insurance claims processing, submitting claims, etc.

The process of billing and coding starts well before the patient enters the clinic or medical office, tracks each individual case throughout treatment and only concludes once the paperwork is completed, payment has been received and records have been filed away. Delays, inaccuracies, or miscommunications could spell issues which you don’t want to have when you’re trying to get the claim out.

It is important, therefore, to verify whether any patient is genuinely covered by medical insurance and the precise scope of the policy, before treatment is started. Once treatment is under way, medical codes must be noted, checked and invoiced in an appropriate manner.
can be a challenging career. But for those who complete their training successfully, it can be a very fulfilling and rewarding one. The opportunities for medical billing and coding professionals are numerous. And with experience, education and dedication, they can offer you a lifestyle and income that will be the envy of many.

Have you got what it takes to enter this challenging and highly specialized career? Administration, insurance work and office management may seem dull and uninteresting to some but this can be precisely why employers are so keen to pay others to do it!

A medical billing and coding salary awaits you, if the details of this career spark your interest.

The Right Medical Billing and Coding School Can Kickstart Your Career

Currently, demand for places at a good medical billing and coding school is  experiencing and upsurge  as the ever increasing workload of hospitals, health care clinics, medical offices and practices place heavy demand for well trained professionals to take care of their invoicing and billing needs.

In fact, figures published by the United Sates Labor Statistics show that a career in medical billing and coding figures in the top twenty fastest growing occupations in the entire healthcare industry. These figures serve to demonstrate just how much importance is placed by the medical community of medical billing and coding staff being trained at a decent, specialised school.

A solid educational background is still a nice plus though!

However, the market’s needs alone won’t guarantee jobs just for the taking. Specific training gained from medical billing and coding schools is still vitally important.

Medical billing services are based on trust. As you might imagine, it would be a poor doctor who would hire a new employee if they were unfamiliar with medical procedures and terminology or who couldn’t demonstrate a working knowledge of a medical billing software program. No medical office would ever accept your application if you’ve had no prior experience in practice management. It simply wouldn’t be plausible.

But, if you can demonstrate to a prospective employer that you have undertaken specialised training at a medical billing and coding school and that you have learned and understood the basic ground rules of practice management, you will have a great chance of landing the job you desire.

Knowledge can sometimes make up for what you lack in experience. Doctors, healthcare providers and physicians will be very willing to hire you if you can show that your specialised training has equipped you with the knowledge and skill to handle the challenges of a medical billing and coding job.

To discover whether you qualify for a medical billing and coding salary, follow the highlighted link.

Is a Medical Billing Salary and Career Right for You?

A medical billing salary and career is without question rapidly starting to be one of the most looked for and fastest growing career choice within the professional healthcare employment market.

Don’t end up being fooled however, it’s absolutely not because medical billing positions are thought to be a pretty basic option as far as a career choice is concernedas they definitely aren’t!  Realistically speaking, the job includes mastery of complicated responsibilities that require a qualified, experienced and skilled professional to manage effectively.

Medical billing functions may be more accurately defined as being ‘practice management’ and it is a service based on trust. Unhappily, the whole area of medical billing can be exposed to scams and overstated promises that not only deceive individuals into believing that they are going to produce a solid profit but will also harm the standing which medical billing  jobs hold within the public eye.

As a potential employee aiming to secure a medical billing salary and start on a long term career as a medical biller, you really should be very tuned in to this issue in order to avoid being misled.

Regardless of this, medical billing jobs in many cases can be an extremely worthwhile career choice.  However, as in a great many walks of life, this is not a  rule that applies to everybody. Individuals that cannot succeed in this field of healthcare management are almost always people who thought that the work would probably be a piece of cake and therefore fail to gain the proper schooling, experience or know-how to hang onto their positions.

But since you happen to be amongst the conscientious and dedicated few, you will certainly make it with flying colours! You’ll be generating a starting salary of around $28,500 pa, increasing to around $36,000 pa as you gain experience.

Not bad for a medical billing and coding salary, is it?

Can You Really Earn a Medical Coding Salary?

More and more people these days are expressing a desire for attaining a medical coding salary. With the pressures growing in the employment sector, a great many would-be employees are needing to come across a combination of a decent salary and job security when considering which career path to follow.

Hunting for the formula to success? While medical coding and billing may not make you an instant success, it certainly seems to have a variety of active ingredients that will undoubtedly quickly boost your career.

Health and fitness care and information technology really are the two most rapidly growing areas relating to the jobs market. Medical coding and billing actually combines these two to give your career massive power. As a fundamental feature of Health Information Management (HIM), medical coding and billing is going to be one particular section of the medical field which you don’t want to let pass.

The exact quantity of medical techniques is rising every single year as the population grows older. As such, right now there is a an extremely high demand for educated personnel practiced in medical coding and billing and in patient information technology, insurance processing and reimbursement. The medical coding and billing specialist is knowledgeable on the topic of patient data. Medical professionals, nurse practitioners, and many other health care professionals really rely on this valuable information to be able to continue with their individual activities. As a result of managing, gathering up, and reviewing health data, your work as a medical coding and billing specialist offers a very important contribution to the delivery of good quality healthcare.

Why not learn whether you are the sort of person who can easily earn a medical billing and coding salary and use it to live the lifestyle you deserve!