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Does anyone just do billing? - Cantu

Posted: Sep 21, 2012

Hello, can you tell me if anyone here just does Medical Billing and not Coding, and if so is there a good online school for that and does it pay well?

Andrews has a course for Billing - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
How much you make depends on where you live, cost of living, salaries in your area. It's a decent clerical-type job. Andrews has a course in it that will be starting soon. I'm not sure when. If they are doing it, they will do a good job of it. They may have other courses.

Okay thanks - Cantu

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I will check into that.

I just found out they do this at my junior college - Cantu

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but do you think this is a good field to go into? I just graduated from high school. Iam looking for some kind of good job.

Coding is a better long-term career, but billing has its advantages - In my opinion

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You'll probably be able to get a job faster with Medical Billing, if you get good training. You won't make as much money in most cases as you would in Medical Coding, and eventually you'll want to do something else. I think it's a good place to start a career. Most courses tend to give just a brief overview of anything, not enough to be good at it, but enough so that you don't want to go take a more thorough course. Whatever you do, get the very best training possible and, as someone said earlier, do it right the first time. We often see people having to take course after course because they keep making bad decisions about which course to take. Shorter, cheaper, faster, usually is a very bad sign.

They have coding too but it takes 2 years - Cantu

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but it says I can take some classes now and then transfer them later. thank you for replying.

The problem with that is, often they cancel courses while you are getting the prereqs - sm

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We keep hearing horror stories of people who are taking the prereqs for coding, for example, and once they have them, the school cancels the coding courses.

For you, it is probably a very good choice - Trained Eye

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If you just graduated from high school, billing would be very good. You will be able to learn the field of medical revenue from the ground up.

Another option that might require no training is health information technology or what is commonly called medical records. You should be able to get an entry-level position at a hospital to start. You can then study coding, health information management or health informatis in a 2 year program or, even better, go straight for a 4 year bachelor's degree and an RHIA.

If you would tell us the name of your college there, I would be happy to look through their catalog and tell you if the programs look good and if they have anything else you might consider. (Several people here are really good at that! I think they are or were instructors!)

It is Tarrant County College - Cantu

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I found out the first courses are not about billing though they are more about medical records. Then I found a billing course at medicalbillingcourse.com. It's not too expensive and I could start right away so now I don't know what to do.

Cantu, this is what I recommend - RHIA

[ In Reply To ..]
Cantu, after looking at both websites, this is what I think. I am an RHIA, so I am familiar with programs like Tarrant. I am also familiar with medical billing.

I saw a mention of a billing certificate at Tarrant, but could not find a good description of it. Tarrant is a regionally accredited college, so they meet certain standards. They are a real college, not a scam operation. I do not think you would go wrong with anything they have. That does not mean I would recommend billing, but it is an ok place to start. I would talk to them about it. Find out if their graduates get jobs and how much the pay is.

I would NOT recommend that other school. It is cheaper and, yeah, you can start now, but it is skimpy-looking and there are warning signs. Medical billing scam courses are everywhere. Certification offered by the school itself is kind of bogus. It is not worth the paper it is printed on. There is also a focus on owning your own billing business. That is one of the marks of a scam. It is actually very difficult to open a billing business especially without a lot of experience. I think you would waste time and money and remain jobless if you chose them.

There is an excellent option for you, though! I was really surprised to see it--I have never seen a program like that. If you think you might like billing, you might like this better.

In the long run, it will pay better. It will let you start working soon, keep on working, and even advance to a 2-year degree AND the RHIT. It might get a job where your employer would help pay for you to go on.

The program is the certificate in Health Information Technology. It says that your local hospitals will accept that for entry jobs in medical records. That is really good. You can get started on an HIT program, get a job, and keep going when you are ready.

Because you are right out of high school, it would be perfect! Tarrant appears to have good student support. Financial aid is available and would not be too risky because they apparently place all their students in jobs. Employers must respect them.

They also have a 100% pass rate on the RHIT exam, which is great, and their students seem to pass the CCS and CCS-P exams as well as the CPC.

If it were me, knowing what I know now, I would get into that certificate program, finish it in a year, get an HIM job, them start working on the RHIT program. If you cannot get in for the fall, see if you can take a few courses at least to get a head start.

Go to www dot ahima dot org to find out what kind of jobs are found in HIM. Find out what the RHIT and RHIA are. See what we do. It is not just a job, but a career field. It is considered to be an allied health occupation like physical therapy. It is important, rewarding, interesting work. (Billing is just a job.)

Talk to the program diector or advisor. Find out what jobs students get. Find out what to do if it is too late to start this semester--review for the accuplacer tests, study for a CLEP exam or two to get rid of some requirements (Google it), or raise money for next semester. Lots of things to do.

I wish you luck. You have no idea how lucky you are to live near THAT college! HIM is a very good career field. It is growing and very stable. There is a lot of opportunity in it. Those two programs are perfect for getting into it.

Keep us posted!

Thanks - Cantu

[ In Reply To ..]
I wish I wouldn't have missed enrollment for fall. I just didn't think of it in time so I'll see if I can take some of the other classes in the spring and the summer.

Andrews has a course in just billing? - How do you know? nm

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nm

I heard that too - sm

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I heard they were adding some courses, but I thought they weren't supposed to start until maybe November.

Does anyone just do billing? - Cantu - steven thompson

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There's a great medical coding and billing program available on CareerStep. They are a recommended vocational training school, and have very affordable programs that can be self-paced online. Check them out if you can!

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