If you've been thinking about getting a job as a medical insurance specialist you may be wondering what skills or responsibilities you'd need and what the job description is. You may already have experience in the medical billing and coding fields or you may just be starting your research into medical billing and/or medical coding training or be somewhere in between.
In any case there are certain skills and responsibilities that you'll want to have or know about. First of all you may find yourself working alone much of the time so you may need to be able to work independently with ease. You'll need to be able to think clearly and communicate well with patients, many of whom you may need to contact by phone.
You must have high ethical standards as you'll be viewing a lot of personal health and medical information that must be kept private. You should be good working with details and have a good basic understanding of anatomy and physiology and know terminology as well. Learning medical terminology does not take much time and you'll notice a significant increase in your vocabulary overall because you'll be learning a lot of root words.
You'll need to know diagnosis and procedure coding and know exactly how to input data into health insurance claim forms.
As part of your job description as a medical insurance specialist you'll need to know how to code diagnoses, procedures and services for patients. You'll need to know how to operate all the office bookkeeping systems and specialized medical billing software. You'll need to know various insurance rules and regulations.
You may be posting payments and charges. You'll be preparing and reviewing and occasionally appealing claims. You may need to explain how health insurance affects the patient's healthcare and be able to answer a lot of related insurance questions.
Now job descriptions can vary a lot. You may do some or all of these things or other things not on this list. But overall this may give you a general idea what the job description is for a medical insurance specialist. You may also be working in a job that only involves medical billing or only involves medical coding and you can go to school or get training in just one or the other as there are plenty of jobs available in each field.
You can find jobs for medical insurance specialists or medical billers and medical coders at healthcare providers, for insurance companies, government agencies, and medical billing services or for large health or medical clinics or doctors' offices. You can also work as a consultant, teacher, writer or start your own medical billing company or service.
In any case you'll need training in medical billing and coding to become a medical insurance specialist whether you get it 'on- the-job' or more formal training in a school or online school or through an online program. There are many different ways to get your education and training and lots of federal money available for financial aid whether on campus or online in the form of loans, grants or scholarships to save you money.
