Friday 10 February 2012

Medical Billing professional’s career prospects brighten

Growth in Employment of medical record and health information technicians is expected to accelerate much faster than the average field according to the United States Bureau of Labor. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported health information technicians are one of the 10 fastest-growing allied health occupations, being a challenging interesting career where you are compensated according to your level of skills and how effectively you use them.

Evolving prospects

Medical billers and coders requirement is escalating almost exponentially due to an aging population and changes in medical technology. As the healthcare field shifts patient documentation to electronic data storage methods, health information filed is undergoing a radical change and positions related to medical billing and coding demand will as a consequence, provide lots of options in the market.
  • Expand your outlook- Medical billing professionals at this point can widen their scope of work, coders who have been serving one clinic for 15-20 years with their experience can expand their outlook and include a group of clinics in their network and consult and train other younger medical billing entrants
  • Accountable Care Organization model – is attracting the attention of hospitals, hence changes in hospital billing structure and increased patient volume will require increased coders to align this process.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook reported Medical billing and coding demand accounted for 40% of opportunities in hospitals and the rest in provider offices, nursing care, outpatient centers and home health service areas
  • Income Potential- Medical billing and coding demand in big cities equals to more wages compared to smaller cities, and hospitals offer better compensation compared to clinics. According to statistics, the median income for medical billing and coding jobs ranges between $35,999 and $44,562, topping out around $74,000
Moreover the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is predicting an 18% growth in job prospects between 2006 and 2016 and Pharmacies and insurance companies are also experiencing a growing medical billing and coding demand. Besides being restricted to only the doctor’s office the scope of medical billing has now grown to hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes, mental healthcare facilities, rehabilitation centers, insurance companies, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), consulting firms, and health data organizations, or even from home.

Coders who are proficient with healthcare compliances like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are already on the way to changing their work scope, Medicialbillersandcoders.com experts fulfill this need as key players in the healthcare workplace to deliver quality healthcare by capturing accurate and timely medical data. Our Coding professionals possess a thorough understanding of the health record’s content we have thousands of medical billers and our certified medical coders are trained to understand procedures to be coded better.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Increased usage of Mobile Devices by Physicians while accessing medical records

Smartphones and other mobile devices have made it easier for physicians to perform some of their duties from any remote location and have also pushed many physicians to test the plausibility of these technologies being used in the healthcare industry. CompTIA, an information technology association, survey reported that 56% of physicians are using smartphones, and 25% are using tablets for work. However, there have also been some concerns over the security of patients’ privacy and the information about the health of a patient. Hence advantages of using mobile technology come with its own risks and threats.

Some of the most common wireless threats to physicians include device risk content where the data on the device is susceptible to malicious executable files, unauthorized intrusion risk where unauthorized third parties may gain control and data integrity, confidentiality and authenticity risk where patients data could travel from the mobile device to the access point without being integrated and this can compromise the patients data to third parties. However, these threats can be reduced by protecting patient data when transferred between devices.

Usage of mobile devices by physicians in hospitals as well is advantageous to physicians as mobile access helps in drawing more value out of the big investments hospitals have made in electronic records. However, patient data needs to be protected and to further elaborate this – The National Institute of Standards and technology (NIST) has released a report regarding the security of information as far as storage devices are concerned.  Additionally a report by the United States Department of Health and Human Services titled “Reassessing Your Security Practices in a Health IT Environment: A Guide for Small Health Care Practices” states some of the methods in which HIPAA compliance can be maintained.

In the changing healthcare industry, usage of mobile technology to access Electronic Health Records is vastly advantageous and almost imperative, however physicians need to maintain patient privacy through administrative, technical and physical safeguards and observe HIPAA guidelines and physicians pressed for time can make this possible by outsourcing their services.

Medicalbillersandcoders.com well updated with HIPAA compliance and other issues related to the Health IT sector, maintain utmost confidentiality regarding client data. Equipped in handling all the administrative and technical details to preserve patient’s data security, MBC has guided thousands of practices across the 50 states in the US to exchange data securely and supported doctors to automate their practices making healthcare more electronically secure.
 

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