The Truth About Medical Billing Jobs

For some reason medical billing has become the focal point for scam operators offering instant business income earned at home. The Federal Trade Commission issued a public warning in April of 2009 about the advertisements in newspapers, late night television and supermarket ads for medical billing opportunities with an 800 number included in the copy.

The facts about medical billing are that most of it is done by health care providers themselves, or by firms with whom they contract. If you see a job advertisement placed by a hospital or HMO, that's going to be the real thing. But if you are considering an educational opportunity in medical billing because of the promise of a lucrative in-home job, you need to do more research on the employment market.

Medical billing and coding is a necessary function that provides the communication of financial and treatment information between a health care provider and a health insurance company. The coding referred to is universal code that conveys information about the treatment provided, and also about the diagnosis. There is a lot of medical information that is included in medical coding, and much of it falls under the HIPAA rules for protection of patient privacy.

Professionals in this business may assemble records from a number of sources, depending on where they work. If they are employed by a medical clinic, there may be billing information from a primary doctor, a referred physician and a pathology or X-ray lab. The information from each of those sources provide billing for the insurance company along with medical information. In many cases, pre-approval for medical procedures is required by insurance companies. The medical biller may be asked to call and obtain that pre-approval.

You should also know that medical billing and coding professionals work for insurance companies as well as for health care providers. Within an insurance company there are clerks that function much as medical billers do in health care facilities, informing patients of the treatment coverage with computer generated correspondence and placing the coded medical information in to an insured patient's record.

The billing and coding profession is going to grow as health care continues to become bureaucratized and as the government gets increasingly involved. However competition for these jobs is significant, so if you are interested in this career arm yourself with a thorough educational background. Vocational schools and colleges offer certificate programs and associate's degrees for the medical billing profession.

Bob Hartzell writes about careers for GetDegrees.com. On the website you'll find comprehensive information about medical billing degrees as well as information on educational opportunities for hundreds of other professions.