Becoming a Medical Biller and Coder: Learning in School vs. On The Job

Video Transcript

Host Question:
How much of the skills that you use in your career do you learn in the educational journey versus how much are you learning on the job?

Medical Biller and Coder Answer:
Some people come into my classes and they say, do I really need this class because my friend does this? And she didn’t even go to school. Or my mother used to do this. And she didn’t go to school for it. She just got a job in a doctor’s office. And yes, that could be true. And we all in the world, in the professional world, there is a benefit to networking and knowing people. And so, yes, that could be true. However, they don’t understand all of the skills that I talked about when we first started. Those people don’t know those skills. So they’re going to make a lot of mistakes and they’re always going to be behind the eight ball saying, oh, well, I figured this piece out, but I don’t know how it applies there and I don’t really know what that code means. I do know what that one means. So they’re always going to be behind. They’re always going to be faltering. Unless they go and fulfill their commitment to their new career and get educated, they’re always going to have a hard time and God forbid, they should try to get a different job.

Medical Biller and Coder Answer:
I say some of the skills I got from my local college terminology very important anatomy and physiology. And then I’m not a computer guy. Right but taking the Microsoft package for access for Excel as a coder and a builder, you will use Excel on a daily basis. There’s benefits to going through a two year program with a local college, but if you don’t have that kind of time or you’re working a full time job and you’re trying to get that certification to get a raise, go to amba, go to APC or a hema, and they have those courses available for you online. Also in the American Academy of coding professionals. They’ve been around for a few years and they have HCC training. You cannot touch an HCC training program for less than two grants.

Medical Biller and Coder Answer:
I would say I’ve learned a large amount in my educational journey, maybe like 80 to 90%, and then the rest of that percentage is going to be kind of sporadic and voluntary. It changes, it’s volatile to where you’re going to work. So we might be coding things at the current office, like I’ve never coded anything before, and then at the hospital they may have a different set of rules and that kind of thing. At the hospital, we didn’t care about insurance. So much. That was wasn’t such a big topic. I need to code it this way for Medicare. I need to go to this way for contrast. It wasn’t such a big ordeal.

Medical Biller and Coder Answer:
I would say it’s probably like a 70/30 split where you are because what I learned from the actual courses, the, you know, the actual education portion of it. Then the third is how as my practice and how different practice is, I work with children. So if it’s literally like this provider’s office doesn’t exist, but then I have a provider’s office, they don’t handle these and this is how they want it handled. Then that’s where the slate comes in. And so I feel like it’s more of my education a lot of the time, and then it’s just being in this career mode for so long in this dream where I’m no help here and I know what works. So I try to educate my provider and the practices. So now even more.

Medical Biller and Coder Answer:
I’m a hands on learner. It definitely clicked a lot better for me when I was on the job and when I was doing it, I got a lot of base of the basics and the terminology and familiarity, the terms that everyone was using around me through the courses that I took. But when I was on the job and actually doing it is when it really started to stick.