Why Would I Be A Good Biller And Coder?

For the longest time I have wanted to go back to school. You see, when I was in high school I could

have gotten good grades had I applied myself. I just didn’t apply myself. To be honest, when I graduated in

June of 1978 I was the forty-fourth or forty-fifth out of a total of forty six graduates. That’s right; instead of putting my head into the books and studying I sat around and daydreamed about Donny Osmond and the male species. It’s not something I am very proud of. I have tried a few times to go back to school. Twice after having two babies I tried going to cosmetology school; that didn’t that work out. At that time I was young and somewhat immature. I took care of my babies and their needs. As far as being serious about starting school and actually finishing, it just didn’t happen. When my children were in grade school (kindergarten and first grade) it was the beginning of all day school, so I had to do something with myself. Where we lived, there were no jobs unless you drove a good 45 minutes any which way. It was time to try school again. I finished one year of going full-time; but it took four years to do it. Though I was going for something that really caught my eye (secretarial science) I just could not get myself focused.

     After working many dead end jobs, I began to yearn to better myself, to find better employment. Some people enjoy working fast food restaurants, cashiering at retail stores, cleaning hotel rooms. It’s not something I pictured myself doing when I thought “When I grow up I want to be….” I knew in my head and my heart that I would have to get off my buttocks and figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life: But what? The hardest part was figuring out what I wanted to go to school for. Here I was very close to fifty years old, unemployed with no job perspectives. I felt the walls closing in on me. For I wasn’t getting any younger, and the older I was getting, the jobs were less likely for people my age. With a perceived disability there just aren’t too many jobs left I can do. What job would be interesting enough to peak my interest and I would be good at?  Medical Billing and Coding was a field I had seen a lot of commercials on. It was very interesting and it sounded like something I could not only do but would be darn good at. A plus to this was I wouldn’t need to attend a four year college. Most curriculum's could be completed under two years, which was good because I know I didn’t have the patience for four years of schooling.

     There was no feeling of dread. I was totally excited. I finally had the seed planted once again and there was no stopping me. This is my destiny. This is my goal. Failure IS NOT an option. I can do this work and I will be good at what I do. I am going into a professional field and from what I have been told and from what I have read this will be a rewarding career. I am a person who likes to finish a job I start to the best of my ability. I don’t like to leave any job unfinished. I am detailed to the point of needing my work to be perfect. You might almost say I am “anal” about having paperwork that is fresh, crisp, and flat. I can’t stand wrinkles. I show up when scheduled, work over time if needed. I will go out of my way to help others if I see they need the help or should anyone ask for my help. I am a hard worker. Though I like working with people, I much more like working by myself. I am a self-starter who works well alone. I don’t need to be looked over all the time.

     I must say though, I may have been pumped when I first started my courses, but, after the first phase I started to lose my momentum quickly. I am attending Vatterott. I was under the self-impression that it was sort of like a junior college. After three phases I find out it is a “Trade” School: A school that is considered to be accelerated and has a teaching staff, some who are “uncertified” educators who were hired because they have worked for so long in the field that they teach. Talk about a shock to my system. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know after the first phase of attending that the admissions counselors have “greased the wheels” so to speak or in lay man’s terms, talked a good talk to get one in the door. I fell for it. The gentleman who I worked w/ it made it sound so wonderful, that his wife was in the same field I chose, and he could tell I would be a good fit. In fact, he even went so far as to say had I been done with my courses, she may have considered hiring me, because her place of employment was always looking for outstanding billers and coders. How could I not be drawn to a speech like that? I took the admissions test, filled out all the paper work to be admitted and to apply for financial aid. I handed in all the paper work that was requested. I was ready to go.

     School started off on a good note. I was told mostly younger people attend in the a.m. and the more older people attend the p.m. or early evening classes. I didn’t want to be bothered by the younger immature crowd, so I settled for the p.m class in hopes to meet people closer to my age. I was wrong. There were suppose to be 7-13 in the afternoon class but ended up with only three of us. Two students who couldn’t make it the majority of the time for whatever drama was going on in their lives. The majority of the time I was in the first class it was one on one with a smart alec teacher who loves the human body so darn much, she was almost orgasmic over it. She found me to be unapproachable because I just didn’t get into the human body like that and that I didn’t find her laughing after everything she said, to well, be that funny. I had tunnel vision at the time; that was to get through schooling, become certified, and move back to Illinois and become employed. I didn’t have time to listen to the teacher making excuses for the two other students as to why they couldn’t make it to school. I was quite sick of hearing “Remember they are young”. Yes, I did remember they were you. I also remembered when I was younger: The reason for my tunnel vision. I just don’t have time to make excuses for others. I am worried about me and me only. If I seem unapproachable because I don’t find students not attending school like they should, or coming in and out of the class while I am being taught for stupid stuff (saying hi, or I miss you, just walking in and out constantly) or talking and laughing, or calling the teacher Miss Lady or Boo, yes then I am unapproachable. We are being taught to be professionals, heads above the rest. We are being taught about patient confidentiality, yet the teachers can’t practice what they teach by telling students business to other ( student is sick in hospital and why, student wrote this on their test exam). Then, yes, I am unapproachable. We are being taught that we as billers and coders have to be very careful when we code and bill because what we put down will mean if physician’s office get paid or not. This is serious business, and when you have students who are getting the teachers attention (“So and so get up, if you are tired go home”, “So and So watch your mouth”, “So and So what did I tell you would happen [yet nothing ever happens] if you didn’t wear your uniform, white shoes?”). If that makes me unapproachable then yes, I am.

     I am taking this schooling very seriously. I am sick and tired of hearing that I should “tune out” those students who are disrespecting those of us who want to learn. I am sick and tired of watching students getting away with “crap” because the teacher wants to be their friend, their mentor, or that teacher goes out to the clubs with them. I came here to get an education. What I have researched in Ebscohost and googled is not conducive to the education I am paying thousands and thousands of dollars for. For one thing: I feel these teachers should have to go by the syllabus and teach the course. Not use their discretion as what to teach. This current phase we are in, we may have had two, maybe three lectures out of seven we should have had so far. The teacher may have worked in billing and coding for sometime, but is a teacher reading word for word (and not pronouncing a lot of the words correctly) the same thing we read already at home lecturing? We have gone to the lab once out of seven weeks we have been here. How are we going to learn to use the Medisoft program or whatever the name of it is if we aren’t sitting in front of a computer doing it? And will once a week, really get our “feet wet” so to speak? And why are we paying hundreds for books we are not even using? I have a dictionary sitting in my book bag, a drug book sitting in my book bag, and this phase, we have only done a few things out of the step by step book and workbook. We have power point that would come in handy when learning how to fill out CMS-1500 forms. We need someone who can tell us why we put certain information in a certain box and not just tell us to do it.

     This is the career I have chosen as the last choice before I get to old and can no longer work. I am very detailed oriented. I am smart. I can learn almost anything, (except Math it seems) if I am taught right. I want to be certified the first time I take my exam. I want to be able to get a job and use what I am being taught. I don’t want to land a job somewhere and have to tell my employer I was not taught this or don’t remember something because the teacher didn’t think it was important or tells their student, “Who cares about this?”, “You don’t need to know this”. We don’t need to be taught like we are nursing students, I didn’t sign up for nursing school. I understand English very well. I can be talked to like an adult and not some young teen/adult who is attending school just for the heck of it or in order to get a stipend check (not caring they have to pay this money back). I will be very good in this field that I won’t have just one job offer but a few to several offers. Not because I have good grades, or attendance, but because I will be able to apply what I have learned at Vatterott, and will be able to act in a professional manner. I will know the full meaning of HIPAA and what patient confidentiality mean. I will hold my head above the rest including my classmates. I will be a force to reckon with in the medical and billing field. It won’t matter if I have to step on a few feet to get my point across or get what I am paying for. I started schooling in this field and I will walk across the stage to be handed my degree. Whatever it is going to take.That is why I will be a good Medical Biller and Coder.

REFERENCES

EBSCOHOST:

STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH THE NATIONAL CODING SHORTAGE

Jill Schweiters, Healthcare Financial Management Association – April 2010

BILLING CODING ERRORS COSTLY

The Receivables Report, Ebscohost Publishing – 2002

DEFINITIVE DOCUMENTATION YIELDS BETTER ANSWERS AND DOLLARS

Samuel A. Donio, Jr., Healthcare Financial Management Association – March 2010

EDITORS CORNER

Judy Veazie – Healthcare Biller – October 2005