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Medical Billing is the Fastest Growing Opportunity in Health Care

by: Jay B Stockman

On February 16, 2006 the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was finalized, and enacted. This law is designed to establish national standards for all health care transactions, and to ensure the security and privacy of all health related information. The motivation behind this law is to improve the performance, and efficiency of our health care system. This type of reform has created a need for qualified individuals who can utilize the tools of this legislation, and assure full compliance, and maximum reimbursement. It would therefore be a prudent move for health care facilities to employ such individuals in order to avoid mistakes that could have dire consequences.

The proliferation of medical knowledge following World War II brought about an explosion of diagnostic, and treatment procedures. As a result, there became a need to organize, and standardize all these developing technologies. Here is where the foundations of medical coding were born. Medical coding met these challenges, and allowed for a more uniform way of communicating health information under a common language. By January 1979, standardized definitions, and codes were adopted, and used by health care providers, and insurance companies. Since improvements and refinements of medical procedures are constantly being developed, codes must be added and updated to reflect these changes. Today, the number of medical and surgical procedures have become enormous, so too have the codes to describe them. These overwhelming numbers of codes and protocols have made outsourcing medical billing the standard.

Medical Billing and related occupations continue to be the fastest growing opportunities in health care. Insurance institutions and government agencies are investing huge resources to control claims� fraud, abuse, and establish some degree of reimbursement parity. As a result, more insurance companies, and health care facilities are looking

Today, evolutions in the health care industry are happening at a very high pace. It is only with the assistance of sophisticated computer programs, and standardized coding procedures that medical coders are now able to describe and characterize the tremendous number and various kinds of medical and surgical procedures.

to medical billing experts for help. These companies and practices are looking for experienced and educated individuals; the legal consequences of incorrect billing could be devastating. There is a movement in the industry to make medical billers responsible for inaccuracies, much they way accountants are for tax returns.

At present, there are no standards for educational requirements for medical billers and coders. However, more employers are looking for some formal training at an accredited career training institution. These schools range in training time from nine months to two years, anything less would not be considered adequate. There is a move for certification, and several organizations are sponsoring certification examinations in medical billing and coding. Medical billers and coders earn as much as $8 to $10 per hour in the beginning, and could potentially realize $30 to $40 per hours with experience and additional responsibilities.

Today, evolutions in the health care industry are happening at a very high pace. It is only with the assistance of sophisticated computer programs, and standardized coding procedures that medical coders are now able to describe and characterize the tremendous number and various kinds of medical and surgical procedures. These realities coupled with government regulations, and health insurance guidelines have contributed to the strong demand for experienced medical coders and billers.

About the Author

Jay B Stockman is a contributing editor for Medical Billing Resource. Visit http://all-medical-billing-software.com/ for more information.

Dr. Jay B Stockman is an individual contributor to Google Health Co-op

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Medical Malpractice What Are The Six Greatest Risks?

By: Roger Overanout

First, lets make one thing clear, the vast majority of patients do not experience any form of Medical Malpractice. In fact the error rate seems to only be between 5 to 80 errors per 100,000 visits to medical practitioners. That not withstanding if you are one of those who become a victim of Medical Malpractice your error rate is 100%.

Diagnostic Errors are the single largest area of risk accounting for about one third of all Medical Malpractice claims. Don't forget this may not just be caused by a direct mistake by a doctor; it could be that the doctor is acting on incorrect information supplied by some other person, but it still results in an incorrect diagnoses.

Inadequate communication between various medical service providers was a major problem in producing claims, it is vital that doctors and other providers ensure that all relevant information is made available to avoid the risk of harm to the patient and prevent a suit for Medical Malpractice.

Incorrect record keeping was the cause of many errors, these errors seem to be have been spread pretty evenly across the various medical disciplines, so it seems that bad record keeping affects all areas of the medical profession just as it does so many areas of everyday life.

Errors in prescribing medication were found to be responsible for 19.4% of injuries according to a recent Harvard study, this hardly surprising when you consider that there is the potential to give incorrect dosage of a drug to somebody and also give the correct drugs to the wrong person!

It seems that most medical errors are not the result of any one person failing in their duty of care towards the patient, but more in basic errors, in the way the system is organised. Simple things that would never have happened if the system had more safe guards built in.

To few staff is the final major factor in producing medical errors, it is hardly surprising that errors are made when already tired staff are called on to perform extra duties. In a recent survey 50% of doctors and 70% of the public blamed overwork and tiredness as a major course of errors in the medical system.

The above list of potential courses of Medical Malpractice claims is not exclusive, but it does cover the main areas, most of these could be avoided it the Doctors, Nurses, Dentists and other practitioners took more care. But that means they need more time, and time costs money so we find ourselves back in the classic Catch 22 situation.

About the Author:

For more information and news about all areas of Medical Malpractice pay a visit to http://www.medical-malpractice-review.com You may reproduce this article provided you maintain an active link back to http://www.medical-malpractice-review.com

Source: www.isnare.com

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