As a Medical Biller, you deal with the administrative side of the health insurance claim cycle. Your job is to learn what the doctor did on a patient’s visit and classify it according to standard medical code. You then use the coded information to draft a bill which you send to the patient’s insurance agency.

Medical billing cannot be easily automated. It requires a human being who can give attention to detail and carefully read patient records and doctors’ written script. The medical biller may need to ask the doctor specific questions about what he or she did so as to put the correct code on the bill. A medical biller must verify that the codes on the bill are correct for the procedure performed, and that they do not have typographical errors.

A medical biller must also verify that the patient’s insurance information is correct. In short, a medical biller is the one who ensures that all the “i’s” are dotted and the “t’s” are crossed.

Yet the biller’s job isn’t finished when the bill is submitted to the insurance company. Any number of problems may logjam the claim process. For example, an insurance company may claim that a certain code is in error. The biller must verify the code and correct errors, then re-submit the bill. A company may also deny payment based on the insured’s specific policy. In this case, the biller must send the bill directly to the patient.

In addition to personal organization skills, you also need people skills. You work with doctors who want to be paid, patients who want to be treated, and insurance employees trying to do their jobs. Interacting in sometimes-adverse situations with firmness and courtesy is part of the challenge of medical billing.

As part of the medical team, you as a medical biller are also privy to sensitive patient information. As a professional, you are governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which forbids the divulging of sensitive medical information to unauthorized persons.

Medical billing is not for everyone, but it may be the career for you. If you enjoy working with people in a challenging environment, please contact our office to learn more. We’d love to hear from you.