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

MT considering coding/billing training - Star

Posted: Mar 13, 2014

I have been an MT for seven years and for the most part do enjoy the work, but find the "feast or famine" nature of the work difficult to make a decent living. I will soon be divorced and won't have my husband's income to help support the house. I have been thinking about training for medical coding and/or billing and am looking into different online courses. I was considering a bundled course at MedicalBillingCourse.com. Has anyone completed this course and if so can you tell me if it is a good program and anything else about it. Would this program meet my training needs? Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Will that course meet your training needs? Not for coding; it is not a coding course. That certification is not recognized in coding.

Acceptable coding credentials are issued by AHIMA and the AAPC. I suggest you review the career information on their websites so that you can learn what to look for in training. It is much different.

If you are looking for billing training, be aware that it is not coding, it is paid considerably lower, and you can pretty much learn it by getting a book on Amazon.

can you suggest a billing book on amazon? - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
That is, if you were serious about that. Thanks

Why would I not be serious about that?? - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
On Amazon, search for "medical billing" (without the quotes). Several choices will come up.

You might start with the "Medical Billing and Coding for Dummies," since it is inexpensive and will give you an understanding of what MBC is.

Then, you can move on to Greene and Rowell and/ or some of the others.

Those pretty much cover it. Note that coding courses teach that material because coders need to know how it is done, but they focus instead on actual coding. A book like Greene and Rowell will be most of a medical billing course, but only a small portion of a coding course, if it is covered at all.

I wasn't sure that just getting a book on amazon - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Would be sufficient to learn billing. I thought a formal class would be necessary.

You might see what the hiring practices are - for facilities in your area

[ In Reply To ..]
Billing isn't especially difficult and a book would be fine to learn it . .. but it would depend on if that would be enough to get hired in your area. I would call around and ask to see what requirements need to be met to be hired.

What do you think classes use? - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
NM

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