What is the American Medical Billing Association?

The American Medical Billing Association, commonly known as the AMBA, is comprised of medical billing professionals throughout the nation. Their ultimate goal is to accomplish a regulation in education curriculum and the industry itself. It is a collaboration of minds to incorporate a vast pool of information, to help improve marketing strategies for the profession and create a large networking environment.

The AMBA focuses on the progressive developement of technology and founding new ideas in regards to skills and knowledge throughout all its professional members. While there is such a huge growth in the demand for the profession, the need for leadership grows alongside the job itself.


AMBA comes complete with course offerings in the following areas:
Medical Billing Course

Doctors Office Course

Chiropractic Billing Course

Physical Therapy Billing Course

Intro ICD-9 Coding Course

Intro CPT Coding Course

Intermediate CPT Coding Course

Risk Management Course

In additional to the listed available courses they also have study guides and access to the exam that can certify you in Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist (CMRS). It is an association that can help start your career in the field and offer a community for growth in regards to those already in the business.

There are many associations in regards to medical billing and it is highly recommended to research many of them if you have the intentions of becoming a member of one.

Medical Billing Software

There is a large number of computer software programs available to all variations within the medical community. As a medical billing specialist it is always good to know a few of these computer programs. From the medical professional standpoint, it is important to seek user reviews for these products.

The use of medical billing software does typically reduce the number of errors that are commonly found on paper forms. These programs help eliminate the common errors and can be customized to each division of the medical field. There are obviously different needs dependent on the size of practice and what payment options you allow. Therefore, a hospital would need a more expansive piece of software then a single practice physician.

These new billing software options also have been proven to increase the number of claims that are actually paid. This is typically do the lack of errors and quick turnaround time when compared to paper documents.

It is important to look not only into the computer software in which you choose to purchase but also into the services that they provide, such as technical support, upgrade options, and any additional fees. These services sometimes can offer more than you ordered and not necessarily in a good way such as additional cost past purchase time and improperly tested software. The company's reputation is important.

This is your businesses money at risk, and the less costs you have due to medical claims the more profitable you will be so take great care in deciding on a medical billing program.

Medical Billing Specialist 2009 Overview

Medical billing specialist can be found all over the world. So this is simply a quick breakdown of the cities with the highest demands, average salaries based on experience, and best states to work in based on the demand.

We all know that when it comes down to it, the financial aspect of any job is the most compelling.
The following are the average pay rates based on amount of experience:

• Less than a year is around $10-$13 an hour resulting in around $16,000-$23,000 a year
• 1-4 years is $11- $14 totaling around $19,000-24,5000 a year
• 5-9 years is $14-$16 an hour to place you at $24,500- $30,700 a year
  
• 10-19 years $14-$17 an hour making you in the range of $30,700-$43, 500
• 20+ years $$15-$19 an hour finishing out around $35,000-$48,000

Now that you know where your career can take you, if you are flexible when it comes to location, these are the hottest cities for medical billing specialist:

1. Houston
2. Atlanta
3. Portland
4. San Diego
5. San Antonio
6. Dallas
7. Pittsburgh
   

Finally finishing off our overview we will list some of the most demanding states in regards to need for medical billing specialists.

1. California
2. Texas
3. New York
4. Florida
5. Ohio
6. Pennsylvania
7. Michigan

Now you know what to expect for your future, where the most demand is, and can prepare for a road of success in your medical billing career.

Medical Billing vs Medical Transcription vs Medical Transcriptionist

Many people think that medical billing, medical coders, and medical transcriptions are all the same person. While degree programs and educational certificates often contain basic training with all three of these areas, they are typically divided in the actual working world.

So what is the real difference between these three careers?
Medical billing is going to pertain a lot to handling insurance claims and patient claims from the medical facilities in which they work in. A medical coder will often handle these duties as well but really focus a lot on the diagnoses and need to be well versed not only in anatomy but physiology as well. A medical coder and medical billing associate can often be interchanged.

A medical transcription career will involve a little less of the actual billing world. While there may be times in which you will need to submit forms, and create the appropriate documentation, their primary job is to take dictations from doctors. It takes a careful ear to take these seemingly rambling statements and turn them into something the rest of us can understand. Accuracy is absolutely crucial as this information typically resides in patients records and will be used often.

Medical Billing Educational Options

There are many institutions that can provide you with the proper education to emerge as a real competitor in the medical billing field. However, the choices you make while in your learning programs can determine your ranking amongst job prospects, and send you down different career paths.

An administrative medical assistant, will submerge themselves in a coursework involving, medical transcription, medical billing, communications, medical terminology, and administrative accounting. While an associates degree in medical billing could place you slightly higher in the world of medical building and would be a great selection if you intended to gain a few years of experience in the working world, with a plan to return to the educational scene as an instructor or educational program manager.

There are many associate degree programs that all incorporate the knowledge required to become a medical billing associate. It is important to research these options as each one can lead you into different paths dependent on your overall goal after you get the education you need. Some of the associates degrees offered are: A.A.S Medical Transcription, A.A Medical Coding, A.A. Healthcare Administration, and A.A.S Healthcare Administrative Services.

There is more to choosing a program than the short term decision of wanting to be a medical billing associate. As you can see many degrees can get you there. However, the paths you plan to take while working as a medical coder will be determined by your educational choices combined with your work experience.

Make sure to pick the right educational path, and choose the right fields of work to gain your experience in to get you exactly where you want to go.

Reasons Why To Choose A Medical Billing Career

With the job market always fluctuating and offering little security, it has become a hard decision to make when it comes to picking a career. There are few that can offer a complete package of benefits, good wages, and guaranteed employment. Medical billing is a career field that can offer all of these.

The first reason to select medical billing is because of the past 10 years it has been a field that has consistently been growing. The demand for medical coders has only been increasing with no sign of decreasing anytime in the near future.

Secondly, the educational requirements and experience need to get a medical billing job is much less than other career paths. There are often two options when it comes to training and education. One is a short-term track that offers a certificate and the second is an associate's degree. These two options both typically offer great flexibility when it comes to coursework times and overall requirements.

Third, you have many options of work environments. This is a job that you can choose the type of practice you would like to work for and choose if you want to work in a office environment or at home. Fourth, the job opportunities involve a variety of selections for you including medical coder, medical transcription, and health care technician. A more indepth listing of job opportunities can be found in the " Job Opportunities for Medical Billing Graduates" blog.

Finally, this is a great business in which you have the opportunity to start up your own company. It is easily run and offers low cost with great potential for high profits. This is further discussed in "Starting Your Own Medical Billing Business".

As you can see this is a lucrative career that has nothing but positive potential not only now but in the years to come.

What Is A Medical Billing Specialist?

A medical billing specialist is responsible for many tasks in regards to handling the hospital, doctors' offices, or insurance companies claims. The services they typically provide to these medical institutions involve dealing with paper and electronic claims, consultations for the review of potential of already established fees, verification of insurance, ensuring current coding standards are up to par, and can make or break a business quickly.

A medical billing specialist should have the proper knowledge and educational qualifications. Coursework that gives a medical specialist the knowledge they need to be good at their job and a great potential hire includes medical terminology, anatomy, health care ethics, and a management related class.

Someone in this field should be a well rounded individual that has a friendly personality, can work well on their own, and has the required skill set. A medical billing specialist will not only be handling the forms and billing procedures but will be in contact with insurance companies, doctors offices, and patients, so it is vital that they are educated and can provide quality communication skills.

Starting Your Own Medical Billing Business

Once you have either gained experience in the medical field or completed educational courses within the medical billing field to achieve a degree or certificate, you are in a great position to start a medical billing business from your own home. The comforts of home and the benefits of working all located in one comfortable place. Imagine being at work in your pajamas, cooking lunch in your own kitchen, or cleaning up the house, and never taking one step out of the office.

This has proven to be a stable home business choice as there are currently two fields that have had little to no impact due to the economic downfalls across the board in regards to types of business. These are health care and technological fields. The best part about a creating a new home business in medical billing is that it has little start up costs. The only major cost for starting up this business is selecting a billing software. You want to make sure it is efficient and compatible with all state or federal standards.

It is coming more and more common for doctors offices to outsource their medical claims to outside contractors, as it is simply too much for private practices to handle. Since you the business owner are focused solely on handling the billing for a medical practice it will often help decrease the number of errors made and create a faster turnaround time for the offices in which contract you to do their billing and claims.

Little investment with great money earning potential is definitely an option to consider when it comes to medical billing in this technology driven world of today.

Medical Billing: What You Need To Know

Medical billing specialist are being entrusted with a serious job. An error can cause not only greater costs for the company you work for but frustration on the patient's end. The knowledge that is expected of a medical coder includes a variety of areas.

If you are looking to venture into the medical billing field, or considering any field in the medical world currently, these are the most common skills and knowledge set that companies are looking for. While there are many areas of medicine, we have taken the time to gather the list that will cover the majority of areas of medicine from hospitals and private medical practices to mental health.

The following list is some of the areas in which knowledge will be required to be a successful medical billing coder. The majority of these courses are knowledge gained through typical medical billing certificate programs.

Medical Office Procedures Medical Keyboarding Medical Terminology Human Anatomy Health Structure and Function Records Management Healthcare Laws and Ethics Medical Insurance Survey of Pathology

CPT® Coding Guidelines CPT-4 HCPCS I, II, III Basic Coding ICD-9-CM ICD-9-CM (Vol 1 and 2) Diagnostic Coding DSM-IV (used only in psychotherapy) Basic Pharmacology Medical Transcription

You can see that it is more than simply knowing the financial aspects of a business or just the medical terminology. Medical billing requires a unique combination of the business and medical fields combined. Too be successful in this field you will need to master both of these worlds.

Job Opportunities for Medical Billing Graduates

A medical billing degree can open the window for a number of job opportunities in the medical world. The job options are prevalent throughout almost every city and are typically in high demand. Without this degree or some other prior medical experience, those outside of the medical world are rarely accepted for these jobs.

Some of the potential job titles that you can hold with a medical billing degree are:

Billing Specialist	Coding Specialist	Medical Collector
Patient Account Representative	Claims Analyst	Claims Processor
Electronic Claims Processor	Reimbursement Specialist	Claims Reviewer
Billing Coordinator	Claims Assistant Professional	Billing Coordinator

This has been a rapidly growing field in the past years and is continued to grow at an exponential rate in the upcoming years. It is one of few fields that have not been hit hard by the economic struggles currently affecting the world. Working conditions and places of employment are also growing and can provide you with a wide variety of choices from doctors’ offices, hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers, insurance companies, ac-counting offices, legal offices, and consulting firms to name a few.

As you can see the choices that a medical billing degree offers makes it a solid choice for those planning out their future and looking for job security.

Choosing the right Medical Billing School

Looking for Medical Billing Training School! You will find a lot of training schools that advertise on the net. However, only a select few are really the good ones. Most of the training schools that are advertised on the net make bogus claims about their rate of placements. Do not trust any medical billing training program blindly. Pick up the right medical billing school by asking these questions...Questions to Inquire When Choosing a Medical Billing School

Medical Billing – A Fast-Growing, Lucrative Career

Medical Billing is one of the top growing careers probably of this decade. There has been an ever-growing requirement of not only Medical Billers but even Medical Coders.

Find out why everyone is talking about Billing and Coding as a great career. Read more at Medical Billing – A Fast-Growing, Lucrative Career

What is Medical Billing?

Medical Billing - Why is everyone searching for it? Learn more about medical billing at www.medicalbilling10.com Learn the whole process of medical transcription, billing and coding. Find out whether you are suitable for this job. Would a medical billing job satisfy your need? What is the current job scenario in medical billing and coding? And all such questions, get answers to them in a way that you understand. Read here at... What is medical billing?

Medical Billing - FAQs

Want to know more about medical billing and coding? Check out Medical Billing - FAQs. Here you will have most of your questions answered. It discusses all about medical billing jobs, salaries, online courses, fees, differences in billing and coding, demand for billers and coders, medical billing certification, earnings, job scenarios, and many other issues that you need get answers.

Launch of Medical Billing Company Directory

MedicalBilling10.com is directory of medical billing companies in the United States as well as in India, Phillipines and other countries. You can search for medical billing companies by searching your city, state or zip. Visit MedicalBilling10.com.

You can also access useful information related to medical billing in the above website.