Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Medical Billing Online - Tough But Rewarding Job Opportunity

By Piper Wongeh

Medical billing online gives you an opportunity to work from home. The downside of this work option is that there are quite a few online scams trying to sell you junk. The scams have become such a big pain, that even the Federal Trade Commission themselves nowadays sends out warnings about frequent scams in this field.

In fact, even the legitimate sites may let you down, first assuring you that they will help you find the potential employers, and then merely providing you with a list of the health care providers, who may actually not be looking for any medical billing services. It is important to do your homework, and not just buy any medical billing online course.

Regarding medical billing online work, a few things to be concerned about are: Do you posses any knowledge of working in the medical field? Will the potential employers be willing to acquiring your services right away, or would they require you to work at their office for the first 1-2 years, so that they could get to know you and your skills? Can you handle being your own boss?

Medical billing online is similar to regular paper medical billing, with the only difference of being online. As a matter of fact, the advance of Internet technologies has created numerous services which can be done from home. Many people prefer working from home instead of going to an office.

As a medical billing online professional you would be: organizing statements and bills and talking to patients and insurance companies (via email or phone). You must know how to encode and decode diseases, procedures, and billing statements. Furthermore, you will also be required to follow up on the failed payments, payment denials and refusals.

Medical billing online also requires data-entry of patients' into a special software application (medical billing software). Coding of the procedures is strict, and mistakes in coding may result in legal implications. Therefore, you as a medical biller have to be highly knowledgeable and skilled.

The larger medical bill review companies are a better choice for most health care providers, as compared to a new medical billing service provider. So, how will you get work? Online freelance websites are a good resource. Health care institutions post jobs for medical billers on these websites. You need to keep in mind, that there will be many other people, applying for the same job.

Before you move ahead towards paid courses and costly software (which together may sum up to a thousand or several thousand dollars), you may also want to contact several doctors' offices, and try to find out if they will be interested in acquiring your services. Personally meeting these doctors is also a good idea.

In most cases, you will have to contact health care providers directly. Different means of doing this are: through job applications, emailing or calling.

A very important point to explore is the kind of earnings you can expect as a medical billing online service provider? This depends upon the amount of work you carry out. A full-time medical billing online service provider can expect up to $100,000.

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