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Career option if you have a bachelors degree - RHIA

Posted: Mar 12, 2012

Interesting post on the coding board about this, so I thought I would mention it here.

If you have a bachelors degree in any subject, you can qualify to take the RHIA exam by completing a postbaccalaureate certificate program in health information administration that is accredited by AHIMA. That opens up a lot of job opportunities. You should have little trouble with a program like that because of your healthcare background.

There are only a few of those programs and some are extremely expensive with residency requirements, i.e., you have to take at least some classes on campus. The University of Toledo has a good one that is affordable, totally online, and only about a year long. Look for their CHIA program. It is listed with their regular health information administration program. I think the tuition for online students is still at in state rates, so be sure to use the correct rates when you estimate cost. Big difference. They are eligible for federal loans.

Ok, this may be a stupid question, but - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
what jobs, other than coding, can you get with an RHIA? How is RHIA better than RHIT?

You don't usually get enough coding to be good enough to do it - My Experience

[ In Reply To ..]
You get a smattering of coding, but not enough to be a really good coder. I know one RHIA who works as a coder. All of the RHITs I know work as MTs. They didn't get enough coding to pass the CCS exam.

Why would you need CCS if you have RHIT? - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
All of my local hospitals require either RHIT or CCS, so why would you need both? Tons of coding jobs on other websites requiring either RHIT or CCS. So, if you can pass RHIT, places will hire you.

More difference - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
The CCS and CCS-P are mastery level credentials. The RHIT does not show the same level of competence in coding. It s a generalist credential with a smattering of everything in HIM, but nothing to mastery level.

Your hospital might hire them, but others might not. That they prefer the CCS or RHIA might not be apparent to you.

There is something to remember when you see that a job requires one thing or another. Those are minimum requirements. The job is not saying they WILL hire anyone with either credential. They are also not saying they feel they are equal. They are just stating the minimum they will consider.

I know that a CCS codes very well because that test demonstrates it. I have no doubt.

I do not know that an RHIT or RHIA can code well. Maybe they can and maybe they can't. They could have gotten all the coding questions wrong on their test. I know more who can't code at all than can

Which do you think I should hire?

Well - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
If I got all the coding questions wrong on my test, I wouldn't have passed school or passed the RHIT exam. When I finished school, I applied to 27 jobs all over the USA. All of these jobs required either CCS, RHIT or RHIA. They only hired coders with ONE of this credentials. If CCS is the best, then why do so many hospitals ask for CCS or RHIT or RHIA? Why not just ask for CCS ONLY? My point is, hospitals hire coders with just RHIT - many, many hospitals all over the USA do this. Look at the job boards for coders and you will see this. Maybe I am not as good as a CCS coder, but the hospital hired me because of my RHIT as they know I have had good training to be able to even pass the RHIT, which is very hard by the way.

Employers can't always find a CCS - See message

[ In Reply To ..]
When I hire coders, I want a CCS. If they have a CPC too, that just means that they are the kind of person who likes to be well prepared. I would not hire anyone who doesn't have that CCS though. It's solid.

Response - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
The post to which you are responding referred to questions on the RHIT exam, not to quesions on your course tests in school. You have to read accurately to see this.

It CAN be possible to get all of the difficult coding questions wrong on the exam and still pass.

The post also explained why hospitals hire coders with the RHIT and so did several other posts here.

The hospital undoubtedly did hire you because you had an RHIT, but it was not because that was what they wanted above all else. If a better-qualified CCS or RHIA had applied, they would have gotten the job.

I'm sure you perform well on the job. You should be able to pass the CCS, so why not try taking it?

I get so annoyed when people say CCS is the best - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
My school taught me how to code well, which is why I passed the RHIT, which has coding questions on it. People who did not go through school and take and pass the RHIT, have no right to say that these people do not know how to code! If I didn't know how to code, then I wouldn't be an RHIT actively coding right now in a huge hospital!

Maybe you do and maybe you don't know how to code - Taking your word for it

[ In Reply To ..]
I'll take your word for it that you are one of the RHITs who knows how to code. Many don't. The RHIT is a great credential to have for other things, but it doesn't mean much when it comes down to the question of whether you can code or not. For that question, I need to see proof that you are a fully-credentialed Certified Coding Specialist (CCS).

Like what? The RHIT is a great credential to have for WHAT other things? - Just Asking

[ In Reply To ..]
I've always wondered what the RHIT was for. I can see that if you have a Masters, then you would be management material, and an RHIT would be an asset. Is it helpful otherwise?

I am an RHIT - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I was a coder for a while, now I work as an HIM EMR Clinical Analyst. Their requirements for the job were to have RHIT and coding experience and experience in EMR. I make 27.79 an hour and have free health insurance with other great bennies. It was well worth it for me to go back to school and become an RHIT, as someone with just CCS and no degree could not get this job.

That's because the job is no longer "coding" - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Just to point out something so everyone is clear, that job is not just coding. It is something else in HIM dealing with electronic records.

While coding experience was required, so was experience in EMR. This has now become a different job which is mainstream HIM.

If the applicant had an RHIA, I'm sure they would have met the requirements.

The RHIT enables you to work anywhere in HIM. It's a generalist credential in HIM. Education across everything in HIM.

Jobs in medical records - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Well, if you have a master's degree, a better credential would be the RHIA. That is more the "administration" credential. That is the A at the end of it. Academically, it is closer to the master's. In the past, it was so difficult to get the RHIA due to there being so few programs and pretty much having to do an entire bachelor's degree to get it that people who had a bachelor's or master's already but wanted to work in HIM had little choice but to get the RHIT to have a credential that would qualify them.

Now, though, there are online programs for the RHIA that are actually faster than doing the RHIT first or at all, so that is a much better way to go if you have a bachelor's already. If you have a master's, MD, JD, or other professional degree, of course, you probably do, so you see all sorts of people popping up with RHIAs now, often in informatics. You see lawyers getting it so they can work with regulatory issues that affect HIM, like Medicare, Medicaid, HIPAA, and compliance.

You asked about what you can do with an RHIT, though. You can work in medical records. File room functions. Privacy and security of records. Record analysis or making sure reports and other entries got done and meet requirements like being signed. Creating new records. Printing transcribed reports and filing them. Filing lab, imaging, and other diagnostic test results in records. Preparing inpatient records for filing after discharge, which in the case of paper records involves taking out junk and reordering pages in a particular sequence. Identifying missing material and getting it done. Releasing information to patients and other healthcare providers or insurers, law enforcement, etc. Identifying records that can be sent to storage or destroyed and sending them off or having them destroyed. Making sure health information meets Joint Commission standards. Training providers in those kinds of requirements. Transcription functions, either doing it or doing the hospital end of it if it is contracted out. Coding, either doing it or performing support functions for a coding unit, or doing the hospital end if it is contracted out. Doing data collection and basic statistical computations on it. Medical records was to be the department that collected birth and death rates, etc. Reporting reportable things like births and deaths to state and other agencies. Tumor registry work, although that is becoming more of a specialized field with specific requirements beyond what was required in the past.

If an EHR is used, there is less reliance on paper records but more work maintaining and analyzing records in it. A lot of that is done by medical records but much is done by IT. There is now the need for RHITs to learn informatics so they can keep up with that and there are specialized credentials in it.

The trend toward more specialization and advanced credentialing means that more and more an RHIT or RHIA is a starting point with the expectation that advanced credentials are necessary in whatever area you want to work in. There are additional credentials in privacy and security. Coding has become more complex and now requires more compliance oversight, so more and more specialization is required for higher level work with additional credentials in coding. There is a need to work with providers on clinical documentation improvement so there are advanced credentials in that. Data analytics has become more complicated and extensive, so there is now an advanced credential in that.

You can look on the AHIMA website to see the credentials and the types of work they typically perform.

reading all of this just made me realize - slave wages

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't want to advance in medical records at all. I have been an MT for 25 years. I know it's a dying field. I thought I might like to try coding. Now I think I'll just carry on with this till they tell me I can't anymore. More power to all of you.

Glad you've made this realization now, rather than later. (sm) - MTforNow

[ In Reply To ..]
In my years as an MT, I've been struck by how many MTs just want a j.o.b., viewed MT as just a j.o.b. That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. I always thought of it as my career, and my coworkers looked at me like I was crazy.

Coding is really more of a career. The expectations are higher, and there's A LOT of continuing education one must keep up with. And it's not like CMT CECs, which one can pretty much blow off and ignore and not crack a professional journal or attend a seminar for 2-3/4 years and then do everything all at once. Not advisable, but one could do it and get away with it. (It's done all the time!) Not so with coding.

I have wondered how many MTs are going to get into this and realize it just isn't for them. There's already been one, possibly two, here that I'm aware of. So you just might be ahead of the curve to have learned this about yourself now.

I think you said it better than I could - My Experience

[ In Reply To ..]
Exactly what she said.

You know that a CCS can code. Anyone who has been around knows that's not the case for an RHIA or RHIT.

Two reasons - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Here are two reasons. One is that employers will hire a CCS, RHIT before they hire someone with only an RHIT.

Two is that we're not talking only about your local hospitals. The job market is a lot bigger than that. If you want a job doing consulting, the client isn't likely to want a consultant who has only an RHIT. They want someone who can demonstrate mastery of hospital coding, and that is the CCS. They also probably prefer an RHIA along with it.

To Put It Succinctly - see brief message

[ In Reply To ..]
A comment I often hear:

From RHIT/RHIA: I really don't know how to code.

A comment you will not hear:

From CCS: I don't know how to code.

MY CONCLUSION FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

A CCS knows how to code. It's anyone's guess with an RHIT or RHIA.

Then hospitals all over the USA are hiring RHITs - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
who "don't know how to code." It's a wonder how these hospitals stay afloat then! I know how to code just as well as you CCS people who think you're the best coders. I got the job above several CCS applicants - and that's a fact.

That is not what was said - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
You may be able to code, but you do not seem to understand what your professional organization says about those credentials or what you are reading here. That is not helping your case. You are coming across as a person with a big credential-related chip on your shoulder.

Nobody said that YOU personally could not code. No one said that ALL RHITs could not code.

This is what WAS said: By their own admission, many RHITs and RHIAs do not code well enough to work successfully in coding or to want to work in coding.

I do not know why anyone would think all of them could, because it would be highly unusual for ALL of them to be equally good at everything in HIM.

Your professional organization does not designate your credential as showing mastery level skill in coding. That is shown by the CCS and CCS-P. The RHIT and RHIA demonstrate generalist skills in coding. Entry-level, not mastery level. It is on their website.

Hence, a previous post was correct in stating that you cannot know that an RHIT or RHIA can code expertly because the exam did not test that. You CAN know that a CCS codes expertly because the CCS does test that.

I will also point out that there is no requirement for the RHIT or RHIA to complete an annual coding assessment. There is for the CCS and CCS-P.

And, yes, I do have both sets of credentials, so I believe I understand this issue. I got both coding credentials in addition because it was important for me to demonstrate more than entry level skils.

Please cosider that twisting what others say here does a disservice to your credential. It does not serve to inspire anyone to want to pursue a career in your field.

The Difference - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
RHIA is Registered Health Information Administrator, a 4-year degree. Any job in health information is open to you, particularly management and administration at the largest and most complex institutions. The degree is tailored for management.

RHIT is Registered Health Information Technician. It is a 2-year degree. It is a degree that enables you to do the work in a medical records department. RHITs may become department managers but usually at small facilities when an RHIA cannot be found or afforded. RHITs are often supervisors within a department headed by an RHIA.

If you look at the salary survey on the AHIMA website, you can see that one big difference is salary. There are far fewer RHIAs than RHITs due to there being fewer university programs for the RHIA.

Experience plays a role in this. An RHIT with a lot of experience can go pretty far. An RHIA usually moves up the ladder much more quickly.

Thanks for the input - Punkin

[ In Reply To ..]
I am a MT at the moment. Just found out my prn job is being outsourced. Have a meeting next week about my FT job. I have been contemplating switching gears. Before transcribing, I have worked in medical records and in a physician's office. I have some minimal coding experience. I also have my Bachelor's degree with a minor in biology. This sounds like an interesting option. I do want to stay in the healthcare field.

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