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MT/Billing - Sue

Posted: Sep 04, 2011

Has anyone out there pursued their medical billing degree along with their MT degree? I am currently studying for my RMT exam and am seriously considering getting my Medical Billing credentials, as well. I thought it might be a good back-up plan in case I had difficulty obtaining work in the MT field. I also thought it might make me look more versatile, overall, if I had an education in billing. I am not planning on taking any coding courses.

I would greatly appreciate all feedback. Thanks.

Education/Training are not necessary for Medical Billing Jobs - Long Answer

[ In Reply To ..]
Each hospital, clinic, and doctor's office has some kind of medical billing software. They hire someone who looks like someone they want to work with. Then they spend about 20-30 minutes showing the new person how to enter the information on their particular system.

In a doctor's office or clinic, they often use what they call a Superbill. The doctor checks off the procedures done that day and the billing clerk types the number next to that procedure or procedures. The doctor also indicates a diagnosis, one that their practice sees, but often not the one a professional coder would have used, because there is more to it than looking up a number for "hypertension", for instance, or some other general term. Those are codes that the doctor uses with most patients in that specialty or sub-specialty. They use the same codes every day. No coding is done at that level. They just type that number on the insurance form. No thinking is needed. Someone has already made a list of the procedures and codes you'll probably need and the doctor chooses one.

Often doctors and clinics lose huge amounts of money because they are unaware of when they need to use a different code or an additional code. They aren't coders and can't afford to have a certified coder working for them, but they lose money because their coding isn't being done correctly, by a professional.

MT and billing rarely go together. Some MTSOs are trying to put MT and coding together, but if the doctor, clinic, or hospital is going to be paid for the work they did, they have to have a certified coder to actually do the real coding after the MT/Coder pulls a code up on the screen or out of a book that seems to be the right one. It's similar to a woman shopping for shoes who sees a dress in a store window and chooses it without specifying what size, color, or trying it on to see if it fits. It might need adjustments here and there. There's more to it than pointing to a code and saying, "I like that code. It's exactly what I was looking for."

So I don't think MT/Billing is a good option in most cases. There are probably exceptions with anything of course. If you are going into MT, go into it with the best training you can get, and go into it to do it well. The skills you learn with a really good MT program can be used in front-office jobs if you should later decide that MT is not your thing.

Thanks for your reply - Sue

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you for taking the time to write. I greatly appreciate your response. Yes, I am going to focus primarily on MT. I'm still very interested in taking a course on medical billing, as that area has always piqued my interest, as well. The course I am considering for billing is a well-rated online course that I could complete in a few months. I thought I would work on that while I seek employment in MT. The billing course is designed to give greater depth/knowledge that I would want to have should I decide to work for a billing company or on my own, and then ,perhaps do MT on the side. Knowledge is power, as they say.

The knowledge I have about billing courses in general is - they usually are ripoffs

[ In Reply To ..]
I know several people who have spent big money on billing courses and were ripped off. Of course they were told they would be able to work at home doing medical billing and people would be standing in line to hire them. They weren't.

Much like MT schools are lying to MT students - NM

[ In Reply To ..]
NM

I would say most billing courses are rip-offs - From What I Have Seen

[ In Reply To ..]
I personally have seen 4 people get ripped off in various Medical Billing schemes. Those billing companies open up, rip people off, and go out of business, being replaced by another one who does the same thing.

Never hurts to have more skills/career choices - Biller/Coder/MT

[ In Reply To ..]
By day, I work for a hospital doing billing/coding and by night at home, I work for another hospital doing transcription. I will say that billing is my first love but I make more with transcription right now. I work the transcription job as an IC though and my billing job offers me the standard hospital benefits. I am grateful to have 2 careers to rely upon because I have no doubt that as more hospitals go to EMR, there will be less transcription to do and I cannot afford to put all my eggs in one basket...I can always get a billing job, but I do not feel as confident with transcription. I would suggest doing it as a backup before it could become your FT job the way transcription is going. I am going to make as much as I can right now and stash it away for that rainy day.

Sue - Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
Before you spend any money on this, please get accurate information about these fields.

There are no "degrees" in MT or billing. The RMT is not a degree. It is a certification. As the first person who responded pointed out, you need nothing for billing. They hire clerical workers for it. It pays poorly.

If you do not know this,then how do you know that billing course is so wonderful? The person who raised the question of this being a scam gave you good advice. Stay away from anything like that, especially if it makes you think you can do billing at home. That is so farfetched it isn't funny.

I have to wonder why you are not considering coding. That is where the decent incomes are. Coding is not clerical work. Please get more information before you make a bad decision. There is a salary survey at the AAPC website along with accurate info about the jobs for coders.

We are familiar with what you want to do and warn against it.

Coders seem to get a lot of respect (and salaries/benefits) - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Coding is appealing because you aren't usually being paid on production and people recognize that you have knowledge and skills. They pay coders better than they pay most medical personnel, including benefits. They don't have to do hands-on patient care, which is a plus for people who don't want to deal with blood and guts and all that goes along with it: long hours, split shifts, horrible nursing directors, etc.

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