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Wednesday, March 9, 2016

By Nancy Liqins


Medical coding today requires a great deal of time and effort. You need to learn the appropriate steps to take in ICD-10 coding. For starters, start out by taking some courses in anatomy, physiology, utilization management and collections. It is becoming industry standard to have certifications with the AHIMA and the AAPC. AHIMA stands for American Health Information Management Association. AAPC stands for the American Academy of Professional Codes. Most physicians today are looking for experts in ICD-10 coding. The codes got released in October of 2015. Most coders today have a difficult time with it. If you can come to master it, you will have a steady job outlook in 2016.

One of my favorite publications in the medical billing and coding field is the BC Advantage. The journal offers information on the changes that is happening in the medical billing field. The last time I checked, the subscription was around $55.00 a year. The journal comes out monthly and it even had 12 free CEUs per year. It is an informative journal if you want to know about the changes happening with ICD-10 and you need to go back to school and update your skills. In billing, you should take at least 1 course per year to familiarize yourself with what is current.

It is important to keep accurate patient records. Every time that a doctor sees a patient, a new record is kept. Whatever the treatment/ailment was, you need to be able to find the appropriate code for it. In the past, finding the code was much easier. Now you have around 100,000 codes to learn. This is no easy task for anyone. Most people think that medical billing is data entry. However, it goes much deeper. Experts that work in the field often know how difficult it can be.

As time moves on, you will begin to see the healthcare industry changing. We are upon a new election year in the USA. There is no saying as to whether or not a republican or democrat will take the election. What is clear is that both sides disagree on the healthcare of the United States. Some politicians are saying that they want to change the way that healthcare is run today. This also complicates matters for coders because without them, nobody can get paid in the medical industry.

A lot of coders today find help from reading articles in journals. A good journal to read is a publication called Billing. It is given by the Healthcare billing and management association. It provides excellent resources on how to further your education and the publication is only available to members. The publication comes out bimonthly and is a great resource for sharing news about medical coding. Another great publication is The Journal of Healthcare Administrative Management. This is an excellent journal if you are looking for a publication that has information about office management. It gives you an opportunity to network and it is published on a quarterly basis.




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