3 New Trends in Medical Billing And Coding
The Medical Billing and Coding career remains an in-demand career field with a predicted growth rate of up to 13% by 2026. Working in the medical billing and coding field offers a wide range of employment opportunities in a variety of healthcare settings, including hospitals, physician’s offices, insurance companies, medical centers, nursing homes, government medical departments, rehabilitation facilities, and urgent care centers. Some medical billers and coders choose to work from home as employees of businesses or hospitals.
Within the Medical Billing and Coding Career, faster technology and information updates occur at a highly frequent pace. This is one of the reasons this field requires certification courses to stay current within the industry. Besides maintaining certification, you can easily stay up to date on industry trends and familiarize yourself with new technology and information through the following resources.
Automation
Medical billing is moving in the direction of absolute automation. This allows staff to focus on the one thing automation can’t do, interact with patients. Communication and relationships with patients is something that can bring more success to a business. This is a great opportunity for providers to enhance their billing process from all sides. While automation takes over manually intensive tasks, billing staff can strengthen their skills in medical insurance and patient collections.
Possessing the ability to navigate insurance IVR systems, communicate with insurance representatives, and correct claim denials for resubmission will be essential to collecting outstanding patient balances. Clearly communicating a patients’ financial responsibility and coming together with patients to find a payment solution is equally as important. Patients should walk away feeling confident in the ability to pay off their medical bills.
Virtual Care
After the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine has expanded rapidly. Now, there is a higher utilization of virtual care, meaning that healthcare organizations will adopt new care models that help provide advanced patient care at home. This could include the use of wearable technology and other connected healthcare devices. As new devices are produced and delivered, there will be a new revenue cycle that will need to be generated, including: registration, appointment scheduling, check-ins, and payment.
As virtual care practices increase in popularity, medical coders need to stay up-to-date with regulatory changes in care coverage and should embrace new work responsibilities. As organizations pursue new technologies, coders, for instance, should identify and educator providers about billable codes and
Apprenticeship Programs
More and more people in the job market have turned away from traditional positions, instead searching for remote positions that pay well. Medical billing and coding fits the description, however, newly-certified coders may lack the experience that many organizations seek. To accommodate for the increased demand and limited experience, healthcare organizations are now developing coder apprentice programs that are intended to efficiently train, and retain, staff. These programs help optimize educational solutions while filling staffing vacancies, an opportunity for those interested in career changes.
Medical coders may be pulled into mentorship roles in order to fulfill apprenticeship prospects, helping assess technological and employee performance.
How to Stay Up-to-Date
As industry trends ebb and flow, it is important that medical billers and coders think proactively. In order to stay up-to-date, consider these methods of self-preparation in the workplace:
- Look for news on new products and tools for medical billing and coding
Discover the best tools for getting on top of billing in your office. For busy medical managers, press releases and articles from online sources about billing and coding software or other products can help accomplish this goal.
- Get more on day to day medical billing and coding administration
Other medical news sources contain a wide and diverse set of informational articles on how to stay competitive in the medical billing services sector, with tips for adapting to the trials and tribulations of a system almost constantly in flux, from electronic medical billing to patient data safety.
- Making the most of now and looking forward
If you’re using medical billing services to manage your office, make sure you understand what’s available. As you look for new strategies, stay in touch with reps and work on overall compatibility, staff training and more to get the best out of what you currently use.
The Blackstone Difference
Medical Billing and Coding is an important financial administration in the healthcare industry. Likewise, medical billing and coding issues can be monumental to both small offices and large care networks. To ensure quality, professional development, market yourself with certification in medical billing and coding.
Blackstone Career Institute, an accredited online career training school, helps make this process convenient and affordable.
