Education Review Place

Did you know there's career school programs based entirely on medical billing? Apparently, knowing medical terminology and anatomy isn't just for doctors anymore.

Medical billers are the ones who deal with insurance companies and patients; they're the ones who tell you that you owe fifty bucks for a doctor hitting your knee with a hammer. With some fundamental medical knowledge and some basic office skills, an experienced medical biller can make 30 to 40 bucks an hour.

A number of medical career schools now offer a medical billing program of some sort. According to Sanford Brown Trevose PA, a medical billing program includes an understanding of billing practices, data abstraction, healthcare computer applications, health record maintenance, and coding and reimbursement systems. They also place students in actual healthcare settings before certification.

This is the first time I've ever heard of such a program. I always just assumed medical billing was a menial job that didn't require such intense training. Of course, there are plenty of other jobs out there that I've been surprised to examine; I still can't believe substitute teachers have to be rigorously certified, for example. When I was in school, all my substitutes just put on a movie and read the latest John Updike novel.