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I went to a community college for 2 years to become a medical administrative assistant and was exposed to some medical coding work in several classes; I found it pretty enjoyable and think it would be a good career for me. Unfortunately, some family business cropped up that meant I had to get a job sooner rather than later and I had to shelve it for a while. Now that I've had 9 months to get sick of front desk work I'm reexamining my options and, well, I'm not quite sure how to proceed. The obvious answer would be to just go back to my old college and finish a certificate for it. I can easily afford to do this but the classes are only offered at one location, in a very specific annual rotation, at times I can't really do, and I can't find any non-diploma mill colleges nearby that offer it either. Even if they did, I have a full-time job so my options are more or less finding online classes or figure it out through self study. So that's kind of where I'm at. I could use some advice on anything related to breaking into the medical coding field; resources for learning it on my own (if that's feasible), reputable places that offer online classes, getting certified, etc. PS. I wasn't quite sure if this should go here or in SAC or something, but since I'm actively trying to switch careers I figured this would make the most sense.
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Dec 15, 2019 02:25
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Hi! I got into medical insurance stuff (in my case, correcting/appealing claims, getting precertifications for surgeries, that sort of thing. Not coding specifically, but related) by getting a job doing filing work and then getting promoted to front desk staff and then getting promoted to insurance staff. I worked at three different medical offices, and this was the career path of pretty much everyone in the insurance departments. Some of them were certified coders, but they got their certifications after working in insurance for a while. Now, I worked for very specialized specialists (corneal ophthalmology for the most part, but some oculoplastics as well) and you don't need to know THAT many codes for that, because it's so specific. Something like general practice or emergency room would be much different. And while it's kind of fun to figure out the right procedure/diagnosis code combo, it can get very difficult emotionally. Like, you have all the little numbers and letters, but there is actually someone losing part of their vision because they pulled a box of Christmas decorations from a shelf and it fell and hit them square in the eye, there is really a person getting their eye removed because they got hit with a firework, there really is someone going blind in their teens due to a genetic disease with no treatment or cure. Then the insurance! Dealing with insurance is horrible. I'm not even going to get into it that much, but dealing with them blocking people from getting the care they need, or bankrupting people, is soul crushing. I did it for nine years and burned out. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, just know that it has some serious downsides. Anyway I suggest getting a job in a medical office, any role, and make it known you are interested in coding/insurance.
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Dec 16, 2019 06:14
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Hey, thanks for the info!HelloIAmYourHeart posted:Anyway I suggest getting a job in a medical office, any role, and make it known you are interested in coding/insurance. This is actually exactly what I did; I've been working the front desk at a cardiology clinic for 9 months now, and I've always helped out the referral intake/eligibiilty people when I can. Unfortunately, our billing is contracted through a third party near the main location, which is 50+miles away from me, so at least for this company I'm kind of stuck. But I'm glad to hear it's not only possible but common for people to simply work their way into coding jobs from other positions.
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Dec 19, 2019 04:45
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