Skip to main content

Electronic Medical Billing

The responsibilities embraced by electronic medical billing are as diverse as this particular field of medicine is. It is often equated with medical coding when in fact; the two are two related careers with actually very different responsibilities.

Both jobs are indispensable in the practice management industry. The job of the coder is choosing the correct diagnostic and procedure codes. The electronic medical billing specialist on the other hand makes the decisions based on these codes in order to achieve optimal reimbursements.

Electronic medical billing specialists can be best described as the income manager of the medical practice. Medical billing after all is often called the doctor's key to getting paid. However, the responsibilities of a medical biller actually go beyond mere income management.

Electronic medical billing involves understanding insurances. In a world where patients no longer need to pay cash in order to pay for each visit since they have health insurance to take care of the payments for them, knowledge on how insurance works is an indispensable tool. That is why electronic medical billing professionals are trained not only to understand the medical billing industry, but health insurances, and all the complexities that go with it as well.

Electronic medical billing service thus includes basic, and major medical coverage plans, such as the Free-for-Service Plans, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), Point-of-Service Plans (POS), and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs). There are many methods of billing patients and many insurance companies with which electronic medical billing professionals need to deal.

Invoicing Responsibilities

Invoicing is just another one of the many responsibilities of the electronic medical billing specialist. As stated earlier, an increasing amount of patient care is being funded through HMO-related insurance. Thus, the patient merely makes a small co-payment at the time of service and the rest of the doctor's bills are taken care of by the insurance company.

Part of the responsibility of the electronic medical billing professional is to make sure that the patient gets invoiced. The record entry process is better done with the help of computer-aided tools such as medical billing software and solutions.

Medical Biller's Hours

Electronic medical billers are just like average employees. Some of them may work for a large company or work independently. No matter the case, chances are they'll be working forty regular office hours from Monday through Friday.

Most medical offices and clinics are often during the day and during that time, new patient entries are made that would have to be dealt with by the medical biller.

Popular posts from this blog

Medical Billing Careers

Medical billing careers are among the top contenders of the recent job explosion in the healthcare industry. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that it is one of the top twenty occupations in healthcare. Medical billing careers are pivotal to the success of the medical practice. It is often referred to as the doctor's key to getting paid for the services he rendered. Medical billing careers encompass a wide scope and a broad range of responsibilities as it includes front office tasks, among others, in its list of things to do. Nature of Work Success in medical billing careers is not as easy as it is often made out to be by those ads you see in the classified section of the local newspaper or the Internet. Not everyone who enters into one end up rich. Competition is fierce and in the end, the competent ones are the only ones who survive. To achieve some measure of success in medical billing careers, you will need to know all the basic concepts related to the jo...

Facing Confidentiality and Electronic Medical Records Concerns

With more and more hospitals employing the electronic medical record as their standard data collection, storage and retrieval system, there are those who are concerned with the risks in the confidentiality and electronic medical records system. The old way of doing things required a lot of paperwork. This meant more office space was allotted for record keeping. This usually meant a filing cabinet with a key as its main security defense against other people. The talk of confidentiality and electronic medical records keeping true to that sense is only a hype, or fluke. The concerns of confidentiality and electronic medical records falling into the wrong hands are grossly exaggerated. To put these concerns on confidentiality and electronic medical records intrusive capability, the software developers have added several security measures to insure that only those who need to know about your information get it and the information that the doctor is reading is really about you: * ...

Medical Billing Career

People in the world today are not getting any younger. As they age, the need for working professionals in the medical and healthcare services professions will continue to increase. That is why there is no more right time to get into a medical billing career than now. The sheer number of new patients and insurance claims alone ensure that medical billing career will be in-demand for many years to come. If you pursue a medical billing career, there is no doubt that you are pursuing a career that is greatly needed. Medical billing has been frequently described as the doctor's key to getting paid. In more accurate description, medical billing refers to practice management. More often than not, processing medical and insurance claims is a very time-consuming task but unfortunately, it is something that all medical offices and clinics must take up. Coding errors and erroneous patient information are usually much higher if the person handling your medical billing and accounts pa...