Medical Billing for Hospitals

Medical billing in hospitals entails keeping up with billing records of patients.

Medical billing is the career of someone responsible for making sure each patient is being billed correctly in hospitals, doctors' offices, or outpatient facilities. Part of the medical-billing process includes talking to patients and insurance companies.

Training

Training for medical billing includes learning medical terminology, medical-billing software, medical documentation evaluation and medical billing codes. Medical billing requires training and education from a vocational school, such as Penn Foster, or a local college.

Salary

The median annual wage for medical records and health information technicians, or medical billers, was $30,610 in May 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Medical billers working in general medical and surgical hospitals earned around $32,600 per year.

Skills

The skills required to work in medical billing in a hospital setting include clerical and good organizational skills. Having good people skills also helps, since interacting with people may be part of the job in a hospital.

Duties

The duties required of a medical-billing specialist in a hospital setting include processing patient admission and discharge documents, reviewing records for completeness and accuracy, posting medical insurance billings, and assigning the patient to diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), using the appropriate computer software.

References

• Medical Billing Career: Medical Billing
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: edical Records and Health Information Technicians
• Medical Billing and Coding
• My Plan: Medical Records & Health Information Technicians