Mailbox: Medical Billing and Coding from Home

From my mailbox…

Dear Chuck,

Hello my name is R______. I am currently attending (a medical billing and coding school). Where I amstuding medical insurance, billing, and coding. I am really interested in the work from home and just have a few a questions.

1 How soon can you get started?
2 Do I have to travel anywhere?
3 How often do you get paid?

Hello R————-,

I went to your school’s website and found the following description …

It says…

“To succeed in this field, you will need to possess a combination of skills. A thorough knowledge of medical terminology, preparing and processing of insurance claims, set up and maintenance of patient records, and proper code selection and application are all essential tools for this profession. Strong computer and keyboarding skills are also vital to the effectiveness of these jobs.

This program offers simulated practice where you manually and electronically prepare insurance claims. You will practice interviewing and documenting skills to obtain the necessary patient information for successfully completing and managing claims.”

That is true of home based medical billing and coding as well.

Usually, graduates of such programs end up working in medical offices and - as they advance -hospitals.

The next step is to actually earn medical billing and coding certification… this credential “proves” your coding ability more than any school certificate.

Medicine is 17% of the Gross National Product and payment for services is a large component of that so you should be able to find work, though it’s not as easy as some recruiters imply.

Working at home requires your own computer, access to the automated clearing house to upload your billing so it can be processed… not your ordinary computer from the department store, but not too complex either.

Most importantly it requires having customers.

You MUST be able to flawlessly process paperwork so your physician(s) can be paid.

While many physicians still have “in house staff” do this, many others outsource this because they - frankly - don’t want to pay for staff benefits. This just recently happend to a friend of ours.

You may not like hearing this, but unless you can work in a physician’s office and “prove yourself” and THEN ask to “telecommute” going out and getting customers may be next to impossible.

Those truly talented at getting customers usually go on to build businesses where they do the selling, not the billing and coding though they know how to supervise that function.

Pay depends on your area and experience.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Median hourly earnings of billing and posting clerks and machine operators were $13.00 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $10.76 and $15.86. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $9.12, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $18.88.

You should be able to make this at home after expenses or more because these stats usually refer to full time workers with benefits.

If working at home and telecommuting you should be paid on the same schedule as other employees. If self-employed, it depends on your billing frequency.

Hope that helps.

Chuck