A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Interesting job crossed my desk today - sm

Posted: Jun 12, 2015

An interesting job announcement appeared in my email today. It was for a large vascular practice in Tampa, Florida. It would be a good entry job for a new CPC.

You know how some people here insist that no one will hire you without experience? For this one, experience was preferred, but not mandated, and ... even more encouraging ... a CPC was not required, either.

I have been seeing other jobs that were similar - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
In the past few weeks I've run into several jobs for medical coders without experience, no CPC required. That is encouraging.

What I think ... - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I am thinking that practices that might have done their own coding off a cheat sheet in the past are now getting coders to deal with the switch to ICD-10. They are being warned about revenue loss due to lack of specificity and inaccurate coding come October.

I also think that larger facilities trying to augment their staff prior to October are hiring experienced coders away from smaller ones, depleting the market and leaving the smaller ones with only brand-new coders to choose from.

Inexperienced coders - anancoderwantobe

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, this is good, but what will they start you at money wise. This could be a dead end job with no room for advancement and no opportunity for gaining experience in other specialties.

Has been good from what I have seen - better than MT at the best - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

How can an entry-level job which gives you experience - be dead end???

[ In Reply To ..]
For years, one of the problems coder-wannabees have complained about is the almost universal preference employers have for experienced coders. Half the threads on this board have posts saying "but you can't get jobs without experience, so why bother"? (That has never been true, of course, but people still say it.)

So, here is a job in a large vascular practice that would prefer experience, but is not demanding it, and they aren't insisting on certification, either, but instead of seeing that as a hopeful sign, you are worrying that it might be a dead end job with "no room for advancement" or possibly low pay.

I am wondering how you figure that any job in coding can be dead end, when you can just get your experience and move on. That is how it works in most jobs. You get what you can out of it and move to a better job when you find one. Everyone has to start somewhere.

I doubt if there is room for advancement in that practice -- why would there be? -- but you can surely go from there to another job that would be an advancement.

And, yes, of course it is one specialty with little opportunity for experience in others. Not all jobs involve doing everything.

As for low pay, if you need an entry-level job to get experience, wouldn't you expect entry-level pay? You can move up from there.

I think you have to be realistic. I also think seeing the glass as half-full is a lot more useful than standing around being a wannabe forever because every glass you look isn't full enough to suit you.

Believe me when I tell you that a job like that is difficult enough to keep you learning for a year or two, and that what you learn there is necessary and transferrable to other jobs.

Regardless of what they might not be requiring, it still isn't going to be easy to get, so instead of focusing on whether you are too good for it, focus on whether you can measure up.

dead end job... - thewannabecoder

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you for your reply. I admire your upbeat and optimistic attitude.

First of all, this is an outpatient coding job doing one specialty that requires no experience and no credentialing. I am assuming the pay is low. Yes, it is a job and any job is better than no job, but I cannot see how you would get experience enough to go on and get another job in a hospital or with a service without outpatient and inpatient coding experience, especially without the proper credentials.

I compare to this the old days of transcription when hospitals or even big services wanted at least 5 years acute care experience. I had my own MTS, albeit it small, many years ago. I had many customers but very limited in the specialties and types of reports. I found it very difficult to go on to acute care because I just did not have the experience, even though I was a MT for many years. I think the same is true in this situation.

Again, thank you for your reply, and unlike many on this site, I certainly do NOT take offense to it.

FYI, I am a coding student in a very good school which is preparing me to take the highest credentialing exams. I am looking forward to finishing school, passing my exams and going on to a rewarding career in coding.

PS I certainly do no think I am too good for any job... I just want to get in there and use my credentials to work and be successful. Going to school for me right now is a hardship financially, as I am an older person and I still have to work full time. That being said, I might feel differently when I graduate and get those credentials and CANNOT find the job of my dreams. LOL.

Have a good day.

I think you are misunderstanding something. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
This is what you said: "This is an outpatient coding job doing one specialty that requires no experience and no credentialing. I am assuming the pay is low. Yes, it is a job and any job is better than no job, but I cannot see how you would get experience enough to go on and get another job in a hospital or with a service without outpatient and inpatient coding experience, especially without the proper credentials."

I think you are misunderstanding what I said, why I posted this, and the way this field works.

I posted this to show that employers are having trouble finding experienced, credentialed coders to fill jobs. They are having so much trouble that this one prefers experience, but is not requiring it, and is not requiring a credential (although I am sure they prefer it). You seem to have interpreted it as an example of an employer dumbing down a job in order to get cheap labor.

I also never said anything about not getting "the proper credentials." Nowhere did anything say that employer was going to prohibit getting credentials. I have no idea where that came from or what you meant by it.

It is not that they want or are looking for an untrained person off the street. They just cannot find experienced, credentialed individuals. They are willing to take, say, a student.

What you do not understand about the field is that outpatient coders usually start in practices then move up to larger ones, more complex specialties, and facilities. They do not usually leap right into hospitals and academic medical centers.

The vascular practice job is not exactly entry-level, either. It is more mid-level because it is a complex surgical specialty. For them to be willing to take a new coder shows how tight the pool of potential applicants has become. It does not show that they are sloppy cheapskates, either, because no surgical specialty can afford not to get paid or to attract the attention of CMS auditors and lawyers.

I think you may misunderstand how things work with respect to experience. The MT situation with specialty experience really does not match coding. Few coders have experience doing everything. It is impossible to find a job where you will do all outpatient specialties, all inpatient specialties, all ambulatory care areas and specialties, nursing home, rehab, day treatment, prosthetics, dental, chargemaster, and everything else. If there are no jobs, you can't get all that experience.

Why do you think the AAPC has that long list of specialty credentials? It is because coders do specialize in those complex areas.

Aspiring to do inpatient and outpatient coding is great, but you might need to tone down your idea of what constitutes an acceptable entry job. If you can get an inpatient job, fine, but if you cannot, you will follow in the footsteps of ten or more people here who refused to accept anything less and ended up not working in coding at all.

dead end job... - coderwannabe

[ In Reply To ..]
Point taken. You obviously are already a coder and know more than I. I was just expressing my opinion. I do not think either one of us has made contact with this particular job poster, so neither of us really know what the pay is, what their intentions are in hiring non credentialed, inexperienced coders, etc. If you would have read my post to the end, you would have seen that I mentioned that at the end of my schooling and my credentials, I may have to think differently when I do not get my dream job. For now, I do have the right to dream big.

No one said you cannot dream big - Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
This has nothing to do with you dreaming big. I am not sure why you continue to see this as hampering or lessening your chances. In fact, it supports the likelihood that you can get a better job than you would have had even a year ago. It is more likely that you will be appealing to a hospital now, especially if you have good credentials.

The point is that ICD-10 has spurred hiring and facilities may not be able to hire all the experienced, credentialed coders they would like. They are more likely to take inexperienced, noncredentialed coders, so they surely will consider you if you can improve on that with credentials.

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