Medical Coding Jobs

Medical coding is basically the process of applying formal, standardized medical codes to patient medical records. Diagnostic and procedural information is translated by medical coders into easy numerical codes that can be electronically processed for payment by third party payers � Insurance companies and Medicare, for example.

Medical coding is a greatly regulated and tightly supervised activity. It's also subject to frequent and thorough audits to ensure accuracy in the medical billing process because there are literally billions of dollars at stake. In a lot of ways, medical coding is much more scrutinized than, say, medical transcription.

Accordingly, the requirement for certification is greater for men and women going into a medical coding career compared to many other career fields. An entry level or advanced medical coding certification is typically considered a prerequisite for entry into the medical coding profession.

There are 2 national organizations that do medical coder certification:

AHIMA � American Health Information Management Association

AAPC � American Association of Professional Coders

Right now the majority of medical coding work is still performed by medical coders working in hospitals or clinics. These medical coders are employed in a professional environment and perform critical behind the scenes billing support activity.

There's a trend toward outsourcing of medical coding work to 3rd party vendors. As this trend becomes more popular, more medical coding work will be done in homes. It is believed that as technology continues to evolve and remote medical coding platforms are developed, the outsourcing model will really take off. Nevertheless, at this point it is key to mention that most medical coding is still performed in hospitals and clinics.

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Chris Dunn enjoys writing articles about medical coding. See also: About-Medical-Transcription.com.