Two of the most highly demanded medical billing and coding courses here at ProTrain are the Medical Billing and Coding Specialist and the Medical Billing Coding Specialist Complete course. Neither course can be reasonably completed in just four weeks. Even putting in 50 hours per week would mean 3-6 months of training.
We say all of this to say that future medical billers and coders should beware of 4-week online courses. There aren’t many out there, but there are few. A free 4-week course introducing participants to the medical coding and billing careers is one thing, but a paid course promising certification in just 4 weeks is too good to be true.
Medical Coding and Billing Certification
To our knowledge, no state requires that medical coders and billers be licensed or certified. At least as a matter of law. But nearly every healthcare employer that utilizes these two types of professionals at least prefers certification. A majority of them require it for a very good reason.
Medical coding and billing are extremely complex jobs. They involve more than just rudimentary data entry. Just as an example, a typical medical coder works with two primary code sets known as CPT and ICD-10. Between them, there are literally tens of thousands of codes to deal with. But then there are other code sets on top of the big two.
Medical coders and billers are not expected to memorize every single code. But they are expected to have a working knowledge of how to look up codes, how to read them, and how to apply the correct codes for every single medical incident. It is not easy.
4 Weeks Just Isn’t Enough
The complexity of both medical coding and billing is such that employers want their employees to have a handle on things. They do not want to hire new employees who have barely heard of the most common code sets and how to apply them. And quite frankly, 4 weeks just isn’t enough to give a student the kind of knowledge employers are looking for.
Our Medical Billing Coding Specialist Complete course includes 755 hours of instruction. It is self-paced, meaning students can complete course work when it’s most convenient for them. They can also move at their own speed. At 50 hours per week, the course could be completed in roughly 3.5 months.
We should point out that the course is a 12-month course. This means the students have 12 months to complete the work before the course materials are no longer accessible. But 12 months is more than enough for most of our students.
What Students Learn
ProTrain’s complete course for medical coding and billing specialists does several things. First, students are introduced to CPT, ICD-10-CM, and other types of medical billing codes. They will learn to use the codes by way of hands-on practical exercises.
Students are also instructed on the legal, ethical, and regulatory components of medical coding and billing. For example, students learn about HIPAA and how it applies to their daily jobs. They learn how to protect sensitive patient information so that what they do as billers or coders does not compromise patient safety or privacy.
Upon completion of the Medical Billing Coding Specialist Complete course, a student is ready to sit for a certification exam offered by the National Healthcare Association. A certificate is issued with a passing grade.
If you have considered becoming a medical coding or billing specialist, we urge you to contact us to learn more about the Medical Billing Coding Specialist Complete course. Just send an email to info@protrain.edu.
