Online medical billing courses prepare you for a specialized medical assistant career. You'll learn billing, medical bookkeeping, and insurance. To succeed, you'll need good writing and interviewing skills, and you'll need to know medical terms and coding.
What You'll Learn in Medical Billing Courses
Online medical billing courses give you flexibility and options. If you're in a hurry to get into the field, go for a one-year certificate. You'll study medical, diagnostic, procedural terms, and medical coding, too. You'll also learn basic insurance and medical law. If you hope to move up or have more flexibility in your medical assistant career, you might pursue a two-year Associate of Science Degree in Medical Billing or Medical Insurance Billing and Coding. You'll practice interviewing and documenting cases. You'll get a medical ethics and core health science education, too.
Your Medical Billing Career
Contract billing companies with sophisticated billing equipment now do the bulk of medical billing, so you're as apt to work for one of them as for a hospital or doctor's office. However, some medical billing specialists prefer to freelance. Though no degree insures employment, as a medical billing specialist with some experience, you might make $10-$15 an hour. You'll be bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as you have access to confidential patient records. You'll keep up-to-date with your profession if you join the American Health Information Management Association.
