Medical office billing is done using standard medical codes to define diagnoses, procedures, levels of care, etc. It is a vital part of any medical practice and an excellent career choice currently with many new jobs being created in the area.

More than three million new jobs in the field were expected to be created in the decade from 2006, and new jobs are available in this field at a rate greater than the average increase in jobs nationally. Wages are generally good in this field. At the time of writing an average wage would be around $35000 in this field. Billers can work regular hours unlike most other staff of medical businesses, and can sometimes even work from home.

Medical billing and medical coding are closely related and many people train in both subjects. Billing could be considered a sub-area of coding, and is vital for revenue management in the current competitive business world.

Billing is the submission of medical codes from a medical or healthcare facility to the appropriate insurance agencies who in turn pay the medical or healthcare facility. This process is somewhat complex and prone to errors. It was found that a significant percentage of money claimed as part of the Medicare system included errors but this finding was by the company who are paid more if they find more errors, which itself is a practice which is obviously controversial.

One method of reducing errors in medical submissions is to submit via a clearing-house rather than directly. This can also speed up the submission process, but some insurance companies still process claims using a paper-based system which results in major delays as well as additional errors.

Almost all bill submission in this field is done electronically, and the use of specialist software is one of the areas that employees are trained in.

Medical office billing is an important function today, and a good career choice as the percentage of elderly in the population increases.



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