This article is about a potential employer’s view on medical billing schools. My experience has been that they simply are not worth the time and money for the students. I have interviewed many medical billing candidates from many medical billing schools and I do not find that the education makes the individual a more attractive candidate than other inexperienced candidates.
In fact, when I do hire a medical billing school graduate they typically are started along side inexperienced new hires in our apprenticeship program. They start at the same pay and in need of almost the same training as individuals that have not spent the money or time on medical billing school. I would say at best, they start 3 months further up the learning curve than a completely inexperienced hire. This translates to about $0.50 per hour difference for 3 months (at best).
The reason for this is that the academic knowledge gained from medical billing school rarely translates well into practical, hands on medical billing skills. If anything, medical billing companies find that we have to undo incorrect concepts and lessons that have been learned in medical billing school. In addition, medical billing students often believe they have nothing left to learn and this makes them poor students in the real lessons of medical billing.
Most individuals would be much better off saving their money and finding a medical billing company or medical practice that will let them join and start with basic medical billing work such as calling on claims to verify status or verifying patient insurance information before the visit.
Both of these activities give individuals a solid base for launching a medical billing career. They provide the individual with both a grounds up understanding of the building blocks of medical billing and a real medical billing job on their resume.
If you approach organizations with this plan in mind it is quite likely that you can find an entry level opportunity. Such an opportunity will allow you to earn an income while learning medical billing and will look much better on your resume than medical billing school.
Once you have a few years of real medical billing under your belt (not just the entry level tasks, but more advanced medical billing you move into as you master the entry level tasks) then you are ready to extract value not from medical billing school, but from coding classes. With the core knowledge in place you can make the most of the coding classes and will have credibility with potential employers.
In summary, medical billing school is simply not worth the investment for an inexperienced student. You will find more success and greater financial rewards if you skip the medical billing school until you have the experience under your belt to make the certified coder courses a worthwhile investment.
Copyright 2008 by Carl Mays II
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