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Medical billing is a specialty within professional medical records and health information management. Some positions in the medical field involve important work with the patient’s health records in some way or another and there is a lot of position in these professions. For example, in small offices a medical biller can also be the coder and the medical receptionist. However, in general, a medical biller can expect to be primarily responsible for insurance collection and billing payment.
Billing code statements
Before insurers pay medical bills, primary care providers must give you an invoice statement with explicit diagnosis and treatments. To avoid misunderstandings as a result of personal notes, the medical area uses many specific codes for different conditions and treatments or procedures. The medical coder often also functions as a medical biller and is the one that translates a patient’s diagnosis and treatment to providers with the help of the codes entered in the medical record, which are processed for the patient’s insurer. Frequently, this process is somehow automated with sorting software that finds the correct codes more easily.
Insurance payment
The work of the medical biller does not end at the time you complete the billing statement and it is delivered to the insurer. The biller is usually related to health care providers and insurance companies. This means that if a claim is denied or rejected or it has an error, the biller’s job is to determine the reason and resubmit the bill, if necessary. A medical biller must understand medical terminology and be up to date with insurance standards to control this aspect of the job.
Patient Records Management
Much of the work of medical billers revolve around the patient’s medical records. Although you are generally not responsible for seeking information directly with patients, a medical biller may be responsible for entering patient information in an electronic record. As part of this responsibility, the biller can verify the data in the patient’s file, including insurance details. The protection of the information in the medical record is the main responsibility of a medical biller and, in fact, that of any professional who has access to these records. Confidentiality is important at all times.
Entry and control of information
Not all medical billers deal extensively with medical records although some are much more involved than entering and verifying information. Some billers are also responsible for maintaining the database that includes electronic medical records. As part of this, they may also be responsible for delivering these records to the medical staff in the office and delivering the documents of the patient to whom they correspond as well as the doctors, in accordance with the law.