Medical Coding & Billing Generalist
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Potential Positions
Thirty-seven percent of all jobs are in hospitals. The rest are mostly in offices of physicians, nursing care facilities, outpatient care centers, and home healthcare services. Insurance firms that deal in health matters employ a small number of health information technicians to tabulate and analyze health information. Public health departments also hire technicians to supervise data collection from healthcare institutions and to assist in research.
Employment Outlook
Employment of medical records and health information technicians is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through 2012, due to rapid growth in the number of medical tests, treatments, and procedures that will be increasingly scrutinized by third-party payers, regulators, courts, and consumers. Employment of billing and posting clerks and is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations through the year 2012. At the same time that computers are greatly simplifying the billing process and reducing the need for billing clerks, companies are putting greater emphasis on getting bills out faster in order to get paid more quickly. In addition, the fact that most billing clerks work in the fastest-growing sector of our economy (the health care sector) will generate more jobs for billing clerks in the future. Within 9 months after graduation, the estimated employment rate for the Medical Coding & Billing Generalist program is 90%. The graduate starting median wage is $10.84 with a wage potential of $17.73.
*Graduate wages and placement obtained from SBCTC/WA unemployment files from 2004-05. Wage potential is based out of Whatcom County and obtained from LMEA. For further information, contact the Counseling & Career Center at 360-752-8450.
Typical Tasks
Specific tasks typically required of a medical coding and billing specialist include:
Assign the patient to diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), using appropriate computer software.
Compile and maintain patients' medical records to document condition and treatment and to provide data for research or cost control and care improvement efforts.
Compile medical care and census data for statistical reports on diseases treated, surgery performed, or use of hospital beds.
Consult classification manuals to locate information about disease processes.
Contact discharged patients, their families, and physicians to maintain registry with follow-up information, such as quality of life and length of survival of cancer patients.
Develop in-service educational materials.
Enter data, such as demographic characteristics, history and extent of disease, diagnostic procedures and treatment into computer.
Identify, compile, abstract and code patient data, using standard classification systems.
Manage the department and supervise clerical workers, directing and controlling activities of personnel in the medical records department.
Plan, develop, maintain and operate a variety of health record indexes and storage and retrieval systems to collect, classify, store and analyze information.
Post medical insurance billings.
Prepare statistical reports, narrative reports and graphic presentations of information such as tumor registry data for use by hospital staff, researchers, or other users.
Process and prepare business and government forms.
Process patient admission and discharge documents.
Protect the security of medical records to ensure that confidentiality is maintained.
Release information to persons and agencies according to regulations.
Resolve or clarify codes and diagnoses with conflicting, missing, or unclear information by consulting with doctors or others or by participating in the coding team's regular meetings.
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This program typically starts in Fall and Winter Quarters
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