The answer is “Yes” and “No”.
Outsource Management Group’s Medical Billing Blog accurately tells you all reasons why individuals seeking to do medical billing from home WON’T succeed.
I suspect it’s a bit biased though… local individuals are, after all, competition!
One medical billing and coding firm my wife worked for worked on the basis of being paid 10% of collections.
Since one busy medical practitioner can generate $50,000 in billings per month, you can see why it’s a potentially ideal business for a work at home “mompreneur”.
That $5,000 won’t all be profit by any means. But even 50% profit would be excellent for most folks seeking home employment.
Still, many buy the prepackaged software kits and the dream and never get their money back.
They just don’t have any contacts in the field, and don’t know how to get them.
But I’m aware of a local entrepreneur in my rural home town 90 miles from two mid sized cities with her own growing medical billing and coding company.
She “grew up” around medicine… her mom was a well known nurse in the local hospital.
She entered the field of medicine herself.
Her actual medical billing and coding business started in a garage about a year ago.
As her reputation grew and she went out to compete for big medical billing accounts, she’s developed several significant contracts and aims to employ 25 to 30 additional medical billing and coding clerks in the next year.
Good thing she didn’t listen to these naysayers!
I do agree however that 1) it’s best to be trained in the field as an employee and 2) the key to success as an individual is not knowledge and software per se, but the confidence and marketing savvy to get the contracts and them do the work.
Usually the ability to sell the service and perform the service do not lie with the same individual!
Francine Schissell on May 25th, 2006 at 10:35 am
I just got my certificate in medical
billing and I am interested in working
at home.
Can you give some type of info so I can
see what it is like
Thank you
Francine Schissell
Chuck on May 25th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Well, if you don’t know what it’s like after getting a certificate, I’m not sure what I can offer.
I’d suggest getting part time experience in a doctor’s office to prove yourself and asking to do the work at home then perhaps.
Lori on June 19th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Hello Francine,
I have been in the medical billing industry (I own a home based medical billing business) for years now and I can tell you with confidence that there are no legitimate companies that will hire or even contract you to do medical billing/coding from home.
The only way you are going to be employed by a practice, clinic, hospital, etc., to do medical billing/coding from home is if:
1. Your employer has a telecommuter program already set up so you can securely receive and deliver your completed workload via some sort of network. Most small practices are not even networked yet and the medium/big offices that are won’t just allow you to work from home until:
2. You have been an employee of theirs for at least six months to a year. No office or business at this stage of the game (especially HIPAA enforced) is going to let a new employee to have that much access to protected health information without them (you) proving to your employer over time that you are a competent biller/coder, can follow the directions and policies that the practice puts forth, you are deemed the personality that is trustworthy and can function without having a boss over your back to make sure things get done in a timely fashion and the list goes on and on.
Your question is one that we in the business see time and time again. If you were asking about doing medical transcription from home then your prospects would be a lot better. The transcription field has several companies in the USA that will contract those that have the know-how, speed and dedication to get the job done and it seems people think you can do the same in the billing/coding field.
3. The only other way to break into the industry is by starting you own home based medical billing business. I can’t go into what you need to do here to make that a reality because it would take days for me to spell everything out but you should read all the links that I will list below my name.
Lastly, here are two great resources that you should read on doing medical billing from home before you do anything connected to this industry:
Home Based Medical Billing Beginners Book-> http://medicalbillingbook.tripod.com
&
Starting Your Own Successful Medical Billing Business Book -> http://www.urlfreeze.com/medbill/Starting_A_Medical_Billing_Business_Book/
Good luck to you,
Lori
ClaimCare Medical Billing Services on August 9th, 2008 at 3:39 am
I own a medical billing services company with about 100 employees. I have to agree with Lori that few reputable companies will offer remote work from home. There are simply too many logistical and compliance issues to overcome.
Carl