92 format as well. These formats are like night and day.

Certainly, there has to be something in this industry that is easy to do. What about forms maintenance? Somebody has to take care of all the forms that the billing people use to send paper claims with. How hard can it be to fill a request for a HCFA 1500 or a Wheelchair CMN form? Well, you do have to know what these forms look like. And because there are so many of them, you d

A lot of people think that they're just going to get a job in the medical billing industry, like it's the same as going to a Burger King and telling the manager that you know how to throw a hamburger patty on a grill and some fries in a vat of oil. This is not so the case with medical billing, regardless of what part of the industry you get into. There is extensive training involved and a number of rules and regulations that you need to be aware of. On top of all that, you better have a good handle on technology because most medical billing is pretty advanced in that area.

For example. Let's take the job of the medical biller. First of all, you need to be very detailed oriented. There is so much involved with submitting a claim to a carrier, regardless of who the carrier is. On top of that, each insurance carrier has its own rules and regulations. This gets really confusing when you're dealing with the government run carriers like Medicare and Medicaid.

While we're on the subject of rules and regulations, read the Medicare handbook when you get the chance. If you're going to be a medical billing person for Medicare claims, you better know that book backwards and forwards.

What if you don't want to get into the actual billing of claims. Certainly, there are other jobs in the industry. Sure there are. You can always become a programmer for a medical billing software company if you're good with computers and programming languages. But if you decide to go that route, you better have a firm knowledge of NSF specifications because most large medical billing companies send their claims electronically. To do that, the NSF specifications have to be programmed into the system. And, if they're a very big company, they may also insist on UB-92 format as well. These formats are like night and day.

Certainly, there has to be something in this industry that is easy to do. What about forms maintenance? Somebody has to take care of all the forms that the billing people use to send paper claims with. How hard can it be to fill a request for a HCFA 1500 or a Wheelchair CMN form? Well, you do have to know what these forms look like. And because there are so many of them, you do

are of. On top of all that, you better have a good handle on technology because most medical billing is pretty advanced in that area.

For example. Let's take the job of the medical biller. First of all, you need to be very detailed oriented. There is so much involved with submitting a claim to a carrier, regardless of who the carrier is. On top of that, each insurance carrier has its own rules and regulations. This gets really confusing when you're dealing with the government run carriers like Medicare and Medicaid.

While we're on the subject of rules and regulations, read the Medicare handbook when you get the chance. If you're going to be a medical billing person for Medicare claims, you better know that book backwards and forwards.

What if you don't want to get into the actual billing of claims. Certainly, there are other jobs in the industry. Sure there are. You can always become a programmer for a medical billing software company if you're good with computers and programming languages. But if you decide to go that route, you better have a firm knowledge of NSF specifications because most large medical billing companies send their claims electronically. To do that, the NSF specifications have to be programmed into the system. And, if they're a very big company, they may also insist on UB-92 format as well. These formats are like night and day.

Certainly, there has to be something in this industry that is easy to do. What about forms maintenance? Somebody has to take care of all the forms that the billing people use to send paper claims with. How hard can it be to fill a request for a HCFA 1500 or a Wheelchair CMN form? Well, you do have to know what these forms look like. And because there are so many of them, you d

sing when you're dealing with the government run carriers like Medicare and Medicaid.

While we're on the subject of rules and regulations, read the Medicare handbook when you get the chance. If you're going to be a medical billing person for Medicare claims, you better know that book backwards and forwards.

What if you don't want to get into the actual billing of claims. Certainly, there are other jobs in the industry. Sure there are. You can always become a programmer for a medical billing software company if you're good with computers and programming languages. But if you decide to go that route, you better have a firm knowledge of NSF specifications because most large medical billing companies send their claims electronically. To do that, the NSF specifications have to be programmed into the system. And, if they're a very big company, they may also insist on UB-92 format as well. These formats are like night and day.

Certainly, there has to be something in this industry that is easy to do. What about forms maintenance? Somebody has to take care of all the forms that the billing people use to send paper claims with. How hard can it be to fill a request for a HCFA 1500 or a Wheelchair CMN form? Well, you do have to know what these forms look like. And because there are so many of them, you d

are. You can always become a programmer for a medical billing software company if you're good with computers and programming languages. But if you decide to go that route, you better have a firm knowledge of NSF specifications because most large medical billing companies send their claims electronically. To do that, the NSF specifications have to be programmed into the system. And, if they're a very big company, they may also insist on UB-92 format as well. These formats are like night and day.

Certainly, there has to be something in this industry that is easy to do. What about forms maintenance? Somebody has to take care of all the forms that the billing people use to send paper claims with. How hard can it be to fill a request for a HCFA 1500 or a Wheelchair CMN form? Well, you do have to know what these forms look like. And because there are so many of them, you d

92 format as well. These formats are like night and day.

Certainly, there has to be something in this industry that is easy to do. What about forms maintenance? Somebody has to take care of all the forms that the billing people use to send paper claims with. How hard can it be to fill a request for a HCFA 1500 or a Wheelchair CMN form? Well, you do have to know what these forms look like. And because there are so many of them, you don't want to be spending all day looking through the stock room trying to find the one you want. You need to be able to identify them quickly and that does take a bit of knowledge.

The list of things to do and the problems associated with doing them, without the knowledge, is pretty much endless. The problem is simple. The medical billing industry is heavily regulated. It's not like putting a hamburger patty on a grill where you can use just about any kind of meet and any kind of method to get it on that grill, such as spatula or with your bare hands, covered with latex gloves of course. Medical billing is precise. Everything MUST be done a certain way or claims simply don't get paid. One T not crossed, one I not dotted and you're pretty much up the creek.

No, medical billing is certainly NOT just a job. It's an adventure and then some.