No career in this world is as easy as pie. You have to put effort, dedication, and time into the process to earn money in return. But sometimes, few careers are referred to as “Super hard” making people run away from that. However, separating fact from fiction is the key here. When we talk about healthcare billing and coding, people often think this is a demanding career. So in reality, is medical billing and coding hard? Or does it only seem like this?
Here we are diving into this specific career and finding out what duties you will have to perform so that you decide whether it is challenging or not. Stay tuned as we are going to clear your biggest confusion about the billing and coding industry.
Knowing The Top Responsibilities Of Medical Coders And Billers
In order to get the answer to your question: is medical billing and coding hard, you first must see what are the duties that they perform. Knowing their role will help you better understand the difficulty level of this career.
Role Of A Medical Biller
A biller keeps a record of all medical treatments performed on a patient to provide it for coding processes. They mention every small treatment to equipment used to create a detailed report of a patient’s services. The basic duties of a medical biller include:
- Keeping thorough records of the medical care that patients receive.
- Keeping records of every technique, service, and piece of equipment employed in patient care.
- Ensuring that medical records are complete and accurate to facilitate coding.
- Working together to convert medical services into billing codes with coders.
- Creating insurance claims and sending them to healthcare payers so they can be reimbursed.
- Corresponding with patients on billing questions and scheduling payments.
- Respecting compliance standards and regulations pertaining to healthcare.
- Enhancing the effectiveness of healthcare organizations’ RCM procedures.
Role Of A Medical Coder
The services recorded by the biller are then received by a medical coder who translates the health treatments and supplies used by the patient into medical codes. Using these codes they create the claim application, send it to the insurance company, and receive the payment in terms of insurance coverage. Their coding plays a crucial role in collecting the revenue because any mistake can lead to a claim denial, in other words, loss of revenue. Their duties include:
- Assigning precise diagnostic and procedural codes by going over patient medical records.
- Following industry-standard coding schemes like CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) and ICD (International Classification of Diseases).
- Ensuring adherence to legal requirements and accurate coding.
- Coding information and entering it into specialized coding software or electronic health records (EHR).
- Taking part in quality assurance procedures and coding audits.
- Keeping abreast of modifications to industry trends, laws, and coding standards.
- Assisting in the prompt and appropriate reimbursement of expenses in order to support revenue cycle management.
Hard Skills Required For Medical Billing And Coding
When you ask “Is medical billing and coding hard”, one thing that you must keep in mind is the skills required for the profession. Every career demands some technical skills that enable you to perform in a certain role and use the associated tools. So when it comes to medical billing and coding, the following are the top hard skills required by healthcare facilities:
Medical Terminology
Being a part of a medical industry you don’t have to study entire medicine and internal as well as external body parts. Instead, all you need to know is some basic medical terminology, anatomy, and physiology to interpret healthcare services and perform accurate documentation.
Coding Systems Knowledge
As a coder, you must be aware of the 3 essential coding systems i.e. ICD-10-CM, CPT, and HCPCS level II. It enables you to assign accurate codes to the relevant medical services to prepare a claim.
Dive into the Medical Billing & Coding Job
Regulatory Compliance
Another crucial thing that medical billing and coding require is to be updated with the latest HIPAA regulations. This ensures your billing is under legal compliance, protecting your healthcare facility from regulatory consequences.
Coding Software Proficiency
Medical coding nowadays is mostly conducted through specific software. One of the basic tools here is Electronic Health Records (EHR). So to become a biller/coder, you must know how to run and use these systems along with some other specialized software used by a specific facility.
Mathematical Aptitudes
A basic understanding of mathematics is also required for accurate charges, payments, and adjustment calculations.
Perks Of Being A Medical Biller/Coder
Where you have learned the basic duties of this career and the skills necessary for the role, let’s head toward the positive points of medical coding and billing. Being associated with this industry you will enjoy the following advantages that make this career unique and interesting than others.
Job Stability
Where many careers don’t offer job security, medical billing, and coding is a field of the modern day so it is not going anywhere. You will enjoy a stable position in this industry.
Remote Work Option
Many healthcare facilities allow you to perform your duties from home, thus saving travel expenses as well as the continuous stress of a professional setting.
Career Advancement
When working on billing and coding you will learn more things and gain more experience which will allow you to excel in your role and keep advancing towards the high-paying positions.
Competitive Salary
With all the perks, comes along with a good salary package. Mid-level medical coders with 2-4 years of experience may make $40,000 to $55,000 a year, while entry-level coders usually make between $35,000 and $45,000. Skilled coders with 5 years or more of experience can make between $45,000 and $65,000 a year.
Conversely, mid-level medical billers make $35,000 to $50,000 annually, experienced billers make $40,000 to $60,000, and entry-level medical billers typically make between $30,000 and $40,000.
Challenges Of The Career
Not everything comes with ease. When you are on your way to finding out: Is medical billing and coding hard, it is essential to know about the challenges you will have to face in your career. This will demonstrate the difficulties of this career so that you know in advance whether you will be able to bear the consequences or not.
Code Updates
When working with coding systems like ICD-10 and HCPCS II, constant code updates will haunt you. You are required to keep updated information about the latest codes as well as codes that have been deleted.
High Accuracy
Insurance payers make the payments only when your claim applications are 100% accurate. This shows the importance of knowing and using accurate codes and preparing perfect claims, without containing the chances of any possible error.
Technological Challenges
EHR and other software troubleshooting issues need technical solutions. So throughout your duty, you will experience a number of system breakdowns which you are required to fix as soon as possible.
Workload
Last but not least, a high number of patients receive medical services daily. If you are working with a huge healthcare facility, then you will be overburdened with hundreds of claims a day. You must perform accurate coding, sound billing, keep a record of claim statuses, reapply rejected claims, and many coding-related matters. This can be counted as a con of medical billing and coding because only a few people can handle the stress and perform best despite the challenges.
Is Medical Billing And Coding Hard?
So now after providing the essential details about the career, it is time to analyze and find out “Is medical billing and coding hard?” Based on the responsibilities, we must say that this is a challenging career and you will have to handle multiple tasks at a time, but when we compare it with the offered salary, this career is worth pursuing. If you are a multitasker, then this job role is fit for you. But if you are not, don’t worry, you always have the time to learn and grasp things. What you should do here is to take some billing and coding courses and step in your career now.
Overall, medical billing and coding is an interesting field. It allows you to work under various domains and departments, which provides room for job rotation. To sum up, medical billing and coding aren’t as hard as it seems. It’s just myths that have been over you for years. Once you take the courses and land your first job, you will see the fascinating coding and billing journey up ahead.
Get yourself qualified with some certifications, learn hard and soft skills, start practicing billing software and you are ready for earning your dream income.