Certificate, Associates vs. Bachelors Medical Billing and Coding Degree?

Video Transcript

Host Question:
Would you say there are reasons or advantages to going the certification route versus a college degree route?

Medical Billing and Coding Expert Answer:
Go through a certification program as opposed to going through an associates or bachelor’s degree. If you’re already planning to get your associate’s or bachelor’s degree and this is something you want to major or minor, and that would be when I would suggest going the college route. But getting a certification is going to be the fastest way.

Medical Billing and Coding Expert Answer:
It really depends on your goals. If you’re one that you just want to be in that cubicle, do the job that you really like do in that certification is perfect. If you want to get into management, you’ll get into the field. You’ll get really good at what you’re doing and you’re going to get bored. At least that’s what happened to me. And so I started looking around some of the certifications, maybe going to Western Governors University. They have a great health information program there. That’s more with another national group called the ima, and that’s health information management. That’s a different sector of things. It does incorporate a lot of billing coding, but it’s a whole different thing that really ties in with it a lot. I think it just really depends on your goals. If you’re really computer savvy and you really like doing that kind of stuff and you know what that cool language is if you know that and you’re into that kind of stuff. Hey, that’s probably about $20 grand more a year doing one of those jobs. And you can get really high up into health care corporation as an IT person.