What embodies a good medical coder?
Do you think you have the necessary skills to become a medical billing and coding professional? What are those basic skills that will enable you to excel in this career?
Understanding what a career requires is one of the first aspects in finding out the inside story on whether or not you are the right person for this profession.
There are three intrinsic qualities you must have in order to do well in this career:
Thorough
Being thorough to detail is number one with a bullet. Many employers will often use this description in their classified ads. That should definitely tell you what is truly important in their thought processes.
Medical billing and coding managers realize that any mistakes in billing or coding will likely result in less cash flow for their organization. This is exactly why employers always desire and really require their future employee to have a year or two of experience under their belt. The supervisor is always thinking how a person they hire will affect their bottom line and will affect the supervisor’s reputation if they turn out to be less than stellar in their attention to detail.
Describing “thorough” in the best way is to remember when you first were trying to achieve a goal when you were young. You were very aware and focused on every detail of what you were doing. Much like walking a tightrope!
Receiving the most payment or reimbursement from an insurance company, Medicare or Medicaid is the ultimate goal of a biller or coder. It is critical to pay attention to every little item.
Taking In and Understanding Fresh Information
Do you really believe that a vocational training program geared to a nine month or one year study will be enough to prepare you for a medical billing and coding job? I think not.
What you will get in one of those programs is a rough outline of what you need to know. All the rest you will learn from extra studying and from on the job. For example, when you sit down at your desk for the first time, you will be drilled with diseases and words that you either didn’t study or never heard of before. Reading the physician’s notes will be another chore in trying to figure out what he or she really meant.
To be sure, each and every day will bring new ways to acquire information and to apply that information in your job. Taking in and understanding fresh information will be crucial to your success in this field. For example, if you can remember several different codes from memory, then it rapidly becomes easier to code them quickly and efficiently.
Always reviewing and re-reviewing your work will undoubtedly slow you down to a crawl. Coding software will assist you as well, but having that knowledge within your head is golden.
A Must Have Working Knowledge
To get the your job done the right way in the little world of medical billing and coding, you have to got to have a firm grasp of the essential subjects encompassed by the job. These subjects, in no certain order are: physiology, pharmacology, medical terminology, abbreviations and anatomy.
Medical billing and coding schools will certainly help you in getting the basic knowledge of each subject. With this basic foundation, you will be able to build upon your knowledge of this medical field and be much more prepared to take and pass your examinations for certification.
To be the best coder you can be you must have a thorough understanding of coding and be striving to learn much more than just enough to get by
The best and most efficient coders have a thorough knowledge and should have the self-discipline to learn more.
