What is Medical Coding Or Insurance Coding?

If you're wondering what medical coding is I can explain it easily here. Medical coding is often called insurance coding (health insurance coding) and is used interchangeably.

Medical coding and medical billing are often lumped together. Many people think they are the same or are combined in one field, industry or profession. However, they are very separate functions. People work as billers or coders - and often not for the same type of company.

With medical billing the Medical Billing Specialist uses the medical report that has already been coded by the medical coder and uses the codes to bill health insurance companies. Sometimes billers also will do some basic medical coding, especially if they work in a doctor's office or clinic. Primarily they need knowledge of the health insurance industry rules and regulations. Coding is usually done in the doctor's office or clinic. Doctors provide the codes and outsource their billing to medical billing companies.

Medical coders are like private detectives or investigators. They assign various codes to the patient's signs, symptoms. diagnosis or diagnoses and procedures, including any lab work. By assigning these codes, it helps get payment or reimbursement from the health insurance companies for the doctors or other health professionals and from government agencies too.

Simply put, the medical coder takes the doctors notes and converts data into codes. Billers submit the coded claims to the health insurance companies and the insurance companies pay the doctors.

People who do medical coding are called Medical Coders. Usually training is required for a job in this industry. Coders can work from doctor's offices, clinics or sometimes from large or small medical billing services.

Coding salaries can be quite good. Both training and experience will influence the amount of salary.

So to recap, medical coding is converting a patient's medical diagnosis or diagnoses and symptoms into medical codes.

Medical coders go through a specialized training program and then are certified after passing an exam. You can take classes from medical coding schools or schools that specialize in healthcare training. Classes can be taken online too. Make sure to compare the schools thoroughly to find the best medical coding school, before signing up for classes. There is plenty of financial aid and federal loans for online classes as well as on-campus programs. Make sure to check these out to save money if you're interested in becoming a medical coder.

For secrets and tips on coding and medical billing careers and starting a billing business, the best medical billing training, finding the best coding/billing schools, online courses, work-at-home and financing go to a nurse's website: http://www.MedicalBillingTrainingInfo.com

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