Starting a Medical Coding Career

Medical coding and medical billing are two of the fastest growing work from home professions in the country. Every insurance company employs a staff of coders, and hospitals and clincs will always need billers. This high demand position is expected to grow by over 30% in the next 5 years. Better yet, many of these companies will hire coders to work out of their homes due to the associated high cost of office overhead. As a trained coder, you can earn over $35,000 a year working from the comfort of your own home. This page contains all the info you need to get started in a career in medical coding. This includes information about medical coding careers in general, help finding medical coding jobs and medical coding certification.

What is Medical Coding?

Medical Coders work for insurance companies and heath care organizations. Every time a healthcare provider renders services to a patient (this is called an encounter) a claim is filed to the patient's insurance provider. For all the types of encounters, there exists a specific code for each. these codes tells the payer what was wrong with the patient and what services were performed. The job of the medical coder then is to take bills submited to the insurance company and translate them into the appropriate codes. This may seem easy, but there are a lot of codes and procedures to learn, along with basic medical terminology.

Medical billing is similar. Hospitals, clinics and private practices need workers to put together bills, or invoices for the insurance companies. Ultimately, the difference is that a biller prepares an invoice to be send to an insurance company and coders take the information and put the information into the proper codes. Both require a good understanding of medical terminology, though the codes and procedures required will be different.

Medical Coding Jobs

While there are a lot of medical coding jobs out there, you will need a good coding course to prepare you well enough to handle the demands of the job. Upon course completion, most (if not all) course providers will be unable to offer you a job. You will have to search for a job as is the case in any other profession, but that shouldn't discourage you. There are many places where medical coding jobs are posted, and some can be found on the work at home jobs section.

Skills Needed for Medical Coding

f you have past experience in data entry, secretarial work or word processing, you likely already have the necessary skills for a career in medical transcription. While you will still need to take a good medical coding course and learn the material, having data entry skills is a big advantage. Some of these skills are:

Typing skills. You should be able to type at least 40 to 70 words per minute (WPM)

Reading and listening skills

Ability to work alone without supervision

Good computer skills

Experience with word processing software (ie. MS Word) is an asset.

Courses and Medical Coding Certification

While there are many good medical coding courses out there, no school can offer you certification. Be wary of any course provider making that kind of claim. To become certified, see the National Healthcareer Association. Also keep in mind that you do not need to be certified to become employed as a medical coder. Most employers will probably not ask for this. However, it still something that would be a good idea to have in the long run.

Medical Coding training from a good school will usually run from around $600, assuming you already have a grasp of medical terminology. If you also require a course in basic medical terminology, add $200 to the overall cost. While many coding programs are offered through colleges around the country, there are also many coding courses available online through the internet. By learning online, you do not even need to leave the comfort of your home to get started in this new career. Here are some online schools that offer medical coding courses:

Meditec (Recommended)
Professional Career Development Institute
MedicalandDentalTraining.com
The Virtual Learning Center

Click Here to Find Out Why Meditec is Recommended