Medical coding professionals form an important link between healthcare practitioners and health insurance carriers like Medicaid and Medicare. Part of the health information management team in a healthcare establishment, medical coders assign standardized codes to the diagnoses, treatments and other clinical procedures being performed there.

These codified documents then pass into the hands of medical billing professionals who use them to bill health insurance companies, government, or patients directly.

Thus, if it were not for these professionals soldiering on, healthcare practitioners would not be getting reimbursed for their services, at least not as efficiently and smoothly as they are now.

Inpatient VS Outpatient Coding

The field of medical coding offers two broad career paths that aspirants can pursue – outpatient coding and inpatient coding. There are some differences in not just the training required for the two career paths, but also in the job itself. Here’s some more information on inpatient vs. outpatient coding:

Outpatient medical coding: As the name suggests, outpatient coding involves coding the medical charts of patients who are discharged from a healthcare facility within 24 hours. So, outpatient medical coders are responsible for charting the medical records of patients who receive treatments or undergo diagnostic procedures in clinics, doctor offices or hospital emergency rooms on the same-day basis.

Inpatient medical coding: This refers to coding the records of patients who are required to stay in a hospital or any other healthcare unit for more than 24 hours, hence the name inpatient coding. Since the medical records of patients who are admitted to a hospital for treatment tend to be a lot more complex, this naturally makes the job of inpatient medical coders that much harder.

Due to advances in medicine, a lot of procedures that earlier required a hospital stay can now be performed on a same-day basis. What this means is that outpatient coding is a lot more prevalent than inpatient coding.

Another factor to consider when choosing between inpatient and outpatient coding is that employment opportunities may be more for outpatient medical coders as they can find jobs in a variety of healthcare settings that include hospitals, physician offices, diagnostic labs, outpatient care centers, nursing care facilities, etc.

On the other hand, most inpatient coding jobs are limited to large hospitals though inpatient medical coders may also find employment with long-term care facilities or health insurance companies.

Medical Coding Training

Like mentioned earlier in the article, there may be some differences in the coursework of an inpatient medical coding training program and an outpatient medical coding training course. However, a large part of the curriculum remains the same for both inpatient and outpatient coding.

Most medical coding training programs include courses in different coding systems (ICD, CPT, etc.), healthcare reimbursement process, medical record types and formats in addition to topics like medical terminology, pharmacology, anatomy, etc. that provide students a thorough understanding of the clinical world.

Aspirants can also choose a medical billing and coding training program that provides them the skills for both inpatient and outpatient coding. However, it’s important to remember that most medical coding professionals start their careers as outpatient coders and then move up the ranks to inpatient coding.

Now that you know what the two jobs involve, it’s for you to pick the one that suits your career goals and temperament better.

Moodle is an incredible Learning Management System that allows educational organizations to manage their training programs and other course modules in a highly efficient manner. This open source software has gained huge popularity and it is now the first choice of the corporate world. With over 68 million users and more than 55,000 sites powered by this platform, it serves the training and learning requirements of people from various types of organizations. Moodle was developed as a platform to provide educational organizations with the technology to offer online learning in personalized environment, for inquiry and collaboration and foster interaction. Educators can now deliver online courses to their respective audiences and satisfy their learning goals.

Today, Moodle development is not only used by big organizations, but it is used by even small institutes and sectors beyond education. Moodle consultants guide the organizations to choose the best solution that can easily meet their requirements. Built on the PHP platform, it offers highly flexible and customized solutions that help to plan and execute special learning processes.

Here we will share with you a list of some of the most important Moodle plugins that any course creator or LMS user would love to use:

Important Moodle Plugins:

Certificate: This plugin helps to create customized certificates that are based on the specific requirements of your courses. It includes changing the font, color palette, display and even the language of the certificate. If you are a coder, you can easily make alterations in this plugin and create a certificate with images and logos as per your choice. There are many templates available and you can use them to create anything that ranges from a standard certificate to anything that is fully customized.

Attendance: The Attendance Moodle plugin development is used to keep a proper track of the student’s attendance that includes many options like Present, Absent, Late and even Excused. This track sheet helps to maintain proper records of the class attendance in Excel and other Text formats. Based on the frequency of the sessions that are held, the attendance plugin also generates the required sheet with just a click of a button.

Grade Me: This plugin makes the grading task easier and it is a teacher centric plugin. It helps to display the quizzes, essays, assignments that are submitted by the students, but have not been graded. But one drawback of this plugin is that it works for groups and so the teacher and student has to be in the same group. Individual candidates or teachers won’t be able to work with it.

Configurable Reports: Another most important plugin is the configurable reports that help to create custom reports. Such reports can provide information about different courses and can be embed in course reports. The user reports contain information related to the users handling the courses and etc.

BigBlueButtonBN: This plugin integrates the BigBlueButton with Moodle and is an open source web conference facility for long distance education. It provides facilities for real time sharing of presentations and videos via the internet and it can also record the content.

Progress Bar: This plugin acts as a great Moodle Support for both the students and the teachers as it helps to track the progress of the student. Teachers can also predetermine which resources and activities should be displayed by using the progress bar. The Overview page enables the teachers to check the work of the students at a glance and it also allows them to intimate the candidates whose work is unsatisfactory and those who are lagging behind with their projects.

WordPress-Moodle integration: WordPress is very flexible and when it is all about selling and marketing strategies, there are a lot more that can be done once the two platforms Moodle and WordPress are integrated. Installing this plugin helps to create an online course in Moodle and sell it on WordPress.

We as coders know all too well the importance of appropriate documentation for fair and appropriate payment for the services that are performed by the physicians. It is just as important, however, to use correct CPT® terminology when listing those procedures at the top of an operative report.

This can be difficult, however, since the words used to describe procedures and conditions in CPT® and ICD-9 can differ from the clinical terminology that physicians use to dictate the procedure. Although coders must always read the complete operative report, and especially focus on the procedure notes, many coders ignore to do so. This can cause them to report the procedure inaccurately and get denials or low reimbursements.

As a result, the words and descriptions that the physician uses in his notes assume much more importance. However in cases when the physician doesn’t dictate in a language similar to the one used in CPT® or ICD-9 manuals, many coders can find themselves lost in the complicated – and at times, incomprehensible – report. This can cause you an incorrect CPT® codes look up, a lower – or higher -reimbursement, audits and even OIG attacks, delays in getting the bills out, and denials by carriers; and internally it can also make it difficult and more expensive to provide training to the staff.

Correct Terminology Can Reduce Denials

Insist that your physicians use CPT® and ICD-9 language. As stated above this will help your practice reduce revenue loss (or inappropriate gain) and speed the billing process. In addition, this can also decrease denials and protect your practice during subsequent audits.

Know The Terminology Yourself

Whether or not you have undertaken any formal training in coding, you must know your medical terminology to stay in the loop. If you can’t understand what your physician is talking about or mentions in his notes, you’re not doing the best you can at your coding office.

You can try learning medical terminology on your own or take an educational course to actually simplify your life in office. If you don’t know the medical terms, you can have a difficult time understanding the physician as well as the patients’ needs.

You must also consider that terms and medical CPT® codes are intentionally precise in their description of a diagnosis, procedure, or even the examination findings. With a proper knowledge of terminology, you can understand the physician’s notes accurately.

You can visit these Web sites to beef up your medical terminology:

• To test your knowledge of the medical words and take some quick quizzes, visit the University of Minnesota’s Web site
• You can buy a copy of the “Quick and Easy Medical Terminology” by Peggy Leonard at your local bookstore.
• To know how to pronounce the medical terms, try the Merriam-Webster dictionary to know the meaning as well as hear the pronunciation. Simply type in the medical term, and your computer will speak to you with the correct pronunciation.

Almost any choice of career in healthcare is sure to be a winner, so well paid and in demand are these. Out of all the possible options you have in healthcare though, there are some kinds of position that seem set for explosive growth in the future. The kind of training and qualifications you'd need to have under your belt to take advantage of these opportunities, are in constant flux. Colleges and universities are still scrambling to formulate the right kind of course to meet demand for the future. If you wish to find a healthcare care for yourself, you do need to pay attention to studying the educational routes there are to take to get where you wish to go. There are so many options you have, you do need to tke the time to make the right kind of choice. Let's look at some of the best-paid healthcare careers choices there are out there that you could prepare yourself for.

First on our list is a healthcare care as a medical coder. A medical coder works in a hospital and sometimes even finds flexible timing schedules available for working from home. A medical coder is someone who keeps medical records for insurance purposes. He knows what kind of procedure or disease code to assign to each record that comes his way for insurance claims purposes. Qualifying to be a medical coder takes about two years, and your job can net you about $ 50,000 a year.

Next up, a nurse practitioner is a nurse who has a masters degree in nursing that she can get with a few extra credits. A nurse practitioner gets to stand in for a doctor and deal with cases that are not all that complicated. As doctors spread themselves too thin, nurse practitioners often stand in for a doctor and make nearly $ 100,000 a year doing this. Lab sciences, the work done at labs where you go in for any test a doctor might prescribe, can pay particularly well. Take a job as a cytotechnologist; This is someone who works at a medical lab and examines tissue samples for infections or cancer or anything else. There is only one way pay for a healthcare care in lab sciences can go, and that is higher up. You get to make about $ 50,000 a year too. Another kind of job working in a lab that pays specifically well is work as a blood sample technician, a phlebotomist. This is a great example of the well-paying career that does not need fancy education. A high school student with an year's training can easily get a job doing this.

There you have it, a list of the best choices in a healthcare care you have, no matter what level of education you hold, no matter what your dream

What is medical billing and coding?

Actually, the term “medical billing and coding” does not refer to a single job, but rather to two closely related fields in the field of healthcare administration (such professionals are often referred to as “healthcare administrative technicians”). While it’s true that many medial billers are also medical coders this is not always the case, nor does it necessarily need to be so.

So let’s start by discussing medical billing, since it’s the most obvious.

In a country like the United States (which does not have socialized healthcare), most healthcare services have a direct cost “either to the patient, or to his or her insurance company (whether a private insurance company or a federal program), and often, a combination of the two.”

Medical professionals may provide the healthcare services to the patient, but they are not directly responsible for obtaining payment for the services they provide. Image just how much your doctor would get done on a daily basis if she or he also had to do the billing and chase down payments that were in default?

You think you have a hard time getting a timely appointment now?

No, it is the medical biller’s job to compile the necessary supportive paperwork and bill the appropriate people and institutions for the services rendered.

Insurance companies need precise documentation of the services and procedures provided by the medical professional, as well as specifics of the patient’s medical record, including the nature of the medical condition treated; whether it is pre-existing, or spontaneous. The medical biller will provide this information to them, and in turn the insurance company will the pay the healthcare provider.

The medical biller’s work starts even before the patient sees the medical provider “obtaining from the patient proof and the specifics of insurance coverage, or the proof of means to pay the bill otherwise.”

Medical billers may also work for insurance companies themselves, where a large part of their work is following up with insured individuals to ensure they pay their share of the medical costs (also known as the deductible). If there are disputes arising over which party pays what, the medical biller will often intercede to address these issues as well.

So what is medical coding?

It is also involved with similar medical administrative work, but it has a more specific focus. In order for the information involved in any medical transaction to be transferred efficiently between the relevant parties; the medical health care provider, the patient, and the insurance company, a very precise means of documentation was devised. In short, numerous alpha numeric codes are used to designate diagnoses, medical procedures, medications (also known as pharmaceutical codes), and even various areas on the body (also called “topographical codes”).

The medical coder is an expert in these alpha numeric codes, and using the information in a patient’s file (which can include the doctor’s comments and recommendations, diagnosis of a condition or conditions, documentation of a treatment and procedures, and dispensing of any medication) converts this into a report featuring the appropriate codes.

The codes can then be transferred onto a bill, and an accurate cost assessment can be made. Since the codes are standard across the medical industry, this allows for quick and efficient processing of insurance claims as well as cost assessments.

Medical billers therefore, are also often medical coders, or at least somewhat familiar with the coding element of the business. However, if they are not, they will work hand in hand with the medical coder to ensure proper payment is made for any healthcare procedure.

In conclusion, medical billing and medical coding are often mistakenly combined into medical billing and coding, despite the fact that these are two distinct but closely related skill sets, not necessarily performed by the same person.

Bitcoin Mining is the act of verifying transactions that take place on each and every Blockchain. This gives validity to every transaction and then shares the transaction publicly across the peer-2-peer network for all to see. Bitcoin miners are the people responsible for the verification and valediction of each transaction before it is added to a block to create a blockchain. Once a miner places the next block on the blockchain, he/she can claim a reward which is usually in form of bitcoins. The more the mathematical calculations you solve, the more the reward.

You do not need to be a professional software developer or coder so as to take part in Bitcoin mining. Below is an easy to follow step by step guide for a Bitcoin mining beginner.

Get a Bitcoin Mining Hardware

Bitcoin mining hardware

The mining world is becoming more and more complex as higher computation power is employed in mining. The higher the mining level the more difficult it is to get profits as the investment in hardware is so high. Bitcoin mining is very competitive and you need to do adequate research before investing in a hardware. Earlier on it was possible to use your personal CPU to mine Bitcoins but with the complexity in mining, this method is no longer viable. You need to buy a specially built computer whose main purpose is bitcoin mining.

Acquire a Bitcoin Wallet

Bitcoin Wallet

You need to have a wallet which is either local or online based to store your digital currency. A wallet comes with a Public Wallet Address and a private key or password which are the most important details to note. If your wallet is self-hosted, you need a copy of the wallat.dat file to prevent you from losing your investment. It acts as a backup wallet if any unfortunate thing happens to your machine. One can even get wallets for their mobile devices. The highly recommended wallet is the self-hosted or local made wallet.

Find a pool to join

Mining Pool

It is recommended that you join a mining pool or chose to mine solo. A mining pool is a group of miners who come together to share resources and share the rewards. A pool guarantees you faster returns as you combine your computing power for greater results. Each pool has their own rules, reward method and the fee charged for mining. You need to find one that best suits your needs. Mining alone is complex and you might never get to make any returns on investment.

Get a Mining Software for your Computer

Mining Pool

There are various free mining programs depending on the hardware you are using. The mining program helps monitor and control your hardware. Some common mining programs are CGminer, BFGminer, and EasyMiner. If you are in a pool, it is advisable to consult them while connecting your pool to your program. The programs run in a command line and may require a batch file so as to start properly.

Mine

After all that you are ready to go. Run your mining program and start by entering your pool’s username and password. You will notice your machine slow down as the miner works.

It is very important to watch the temperatures closely as the software makes your hardware heat up. Some programs like SpeedFan can keep the temperature in check. You do not want to risk literally blowing up your investment before you even start working. After a while, you should check how much you are making to see if your investment is worth running on.

Angular JS is an open source framework for building web applications. Tech giant Google maintains it. Coders face many issues while developing and testing any code. It resorts many of the challenges which the coders may face.

AngularJS mixes HTML codes and app modules to form a framework. Its earlier base was Model View Controller (MVC) Architecture. It was mainly in use for planning rich web applications. But, situation has been on a change since the introduction of the Angular JS 2.

The new and superior features of this technology are a boon for the Angular JS Development Companies. The advanced technology can now naturally be in sync with models and view. This makes AngularJS web development a very simple process.

In short, some of the stand out features of AngularJS are:

– Two-way data binding

– MVC structure

– Directives

– Templates

– Dependency injections

– Testing

Apart from these basic advantages, these are the few reasons which make Angular JS the first choice for web development.

Let us look into these advantages in detail:

Most widely used Framework

AngularJS is one of the most widely used frameworks for creating websites. Also, for the mainstream development, Angular JS is in use. Moreover, it has a fine support of a global community of keen and talented developers.

Declarative Code Style

The most hectic job in coding is writing codes for every little function. You need to write multiple codes for adding a single function. With the declarative coding paradigm, AngularJS ensures that the coders have to write fewer codes. The coding reduces for executing the same goals. In simpler terms, you do not need to write all the steps involved in any action. You just have to write the final steps!

Wide Recognition

AngularJS web development is a globally known framework. It is in use for developing high quality apps. In addition, it is also known for developing hybrid apps. Many development frameworks and stacks across the world are using AngularJS for this purpose. It has a wider global acceptance and is trending currently as a technology for developing web apps.

Data Binding

For enhancing the testing ability, Angular JS is in use. Testing enhancement is because the decoupling of data can have the view of DOM element or HTML. The developer can effortlessly identify the logic that controls this data. Moreover, the data separation is also very simple. Hence, the division of UI element and its representation makes viewing a pleasing experience than other frameworks.

We have seen the positives of Angular JS development. Now, let us see why few web development companies remain distant from using AngularJS.

The Disadvantages of AngularJS

Performance Glitches

As the apps developed under the AngularJS framework are dynamic. These dynamic apps lack in performance. Sometimes complex single page apps can have some lags and show glitches while performing.

Need Professionals

An entrepreneur may look at Angular JS as the best suitable framework for web app development. But, you get to know that your classical web development knowledge would create confusion when you use AngularJS. Features like dependency injection and firm can be challenging for you. Either you will have to invest more time in learning or you may have to look for professional help.

JavaScript Mandatory

Nothing in the world is absolute. Is it universal that all the computers and laptops would have a JavaScript support enabled? When you own a business, you want to reach maximum number of people. When JavaScript support is missing, your website or app would not be able to reach these people. Your web app would become less useful. Instead, if you use HTML as the base for web development, this problem eliminates.

Online form filling jobs without investment do, in fact, exist. The most common among these is data entry.

Data Entry

Data entry is actually a pretty broad term. These online jobs can cover a large variety of work that all use a common step; you fill in the information. Data entry can include placing ads, filling out form to be processed, or processing information into a different form. It’s actually very simple. You take the information they give you and plug it into whichever form (that they also give you) they want you to use. Most of them are really that simple, but not all online form filling jobs without investment will be.

Online Form Filling Jobs Without Investment – Insurance

This will require some training. The training is usually provided by the company at no cost. The reason for the training is the sensitivity of the form. If you are filling out insurance forms, you will need to know the right codes for the form. Also, some forms are worded funny, so getting a breakdown of what they expect where on the form is a good idea. This is another example of online form filling jobs without investment, but it will require a little more from you to do it properly.

Online Form Filling Jobs Without Investment – Medical Coders

Medical coding is another job that will require training. A lot of this is provided by the company that wants the work done. You should realize that this training will only be good with that specific company. Their training will not give you all of the correct information to do coding for anyone. It only teaches you exactly how their company needs it done. There is a different kind of training that you can take to be a medical coder that will allow you to do work for many companies. It is training that you will have to pay for. If you find that you like doing this type of work with one company, you might want to check out that alternative.

Footnote

Please take not that the online form filling jobs without investment means you are not paying to do the work. There is no capital investment involved. You still have to put in the time and effort if you want to get paid just like any other job. The work might be easier, but it still has to get done id you want the paycheck. You should also realize that there are only a couple examples mentioned in this article. There are many more out there.

Sajan completed his B. Tech in computer science. His father was a barber who had processed to ensure that their son would find a gainful employment one day. It was 2008, the parents were astonishingly watching the lifestyle of IT professionals and hoped one day their son also will shine professionally. An independent house, a car was their dream despite Sajan's father in his barber profession earned comfortably.

It was in 2014 Sajan completed his B. Tech and found a job as a coder in an IT company. He was drawing an annual package of 4 lacs per annual in a small and medium company. Two years have passed and the new worry of Sajan was how to convince his parents over the layoffs happening in the IT sector. Sad to say, roles like testing and coding are being automated and it is a matter of time that Sajan will be given pink slip from his coding job. Rumors floated that new projects are not coming and those who completed the existing projects can leave.

Thanks to digitization and automation traditional job sections are being shaken. Yes, technology has its way to make yesteryears skills obsolescent and jobs too. A study by World Bank stated that manufacturing led growth will take away manufacturing bases in countries like India and China to their home countries.

Why Traditional Jobs are Vanishing?

It is a worry for manufacturers that executives learn about manufacturing process and use that knowledge to fetch better salaries with the competitors who are eager to absorb them for capturing the market pie. Businesses want to stop this by employing machines or robots to prevent knowledge or market secrets going to the competitors. Although this is an advantage to the employers, employees the humans are at disadvantage and it is at this stage that they should learn new technologies and align with the changes.

Why it is Important for Businesses to go Digital

It is not a hyperbole to say even saloons have Facebook accounts to present their infrastructure or description on types of services offered by the haircut center. Now the question may come, if one saloon will not do that what will happen. The answer is, that business will lose out in competition as people prefer to do business with those who have digital marketing. Customers go through the reviews or information and contact information provided in the social media channels where they can interact with the service provider directly.

As e-commerce is the hot trend where manufacturers or farmers can sell their product eliminating third parties both consumers and the producers want connectivity through net. To make this happen one should have a website, content, administrator to manage the website ably assisted by relevant content that go in line with the market trends. Guess who are the ones going to be favored in this process. It is the freelancers.

In today's job market freelancers who have domain expertise and skills are going to make bucks as small businesses find it difficult to appoint full time staff for their website management due to high cost. Secondly, full time staffers are not needed as the time taken to do these tasks will be less. So, the best option is to avail the services of freelancers who will do the same job for five or six businesses like this. It is also a scenario where both parties benefit.

Generic Education is Passé

The constant here is it is not the generic education that is going to fetch income. To be specific it is the skills and knowledge of a professional that is going to provide income in this digital age. In a country like India where crores of people buy and sell through digital media, it makes sense for job aspirants to learn this vital trade to make them market relevant.

Digital Marketing is the Way Ahead

When traditional job markets are diminishing, job aspirants should create their future through digital marketing. For an IT professional, it is not going to be a hard thing to promote affiliate marketing and earn when a product or service sell. The bottom line here is you may be an IT or non-IT professional, but you should learn digital marketing for pleasure and profit.

It can be confusing when talking about medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription. People often use them interchangeably when in fact they’re all separate functions. They’re all areas of medical assisting job expertise and many people have successful careers or own work at home businesses in these fields.

All three medical professions or careers are hot healthcare information fields right now and that will not change. As more and more people need health care, there will be more and more jobs available in this market.

The nice thing about two of these fields is that you can combine them easily. In fact you may want to learn medical coding along with medical billing and be able to offer both to prospective employers or be able to offer both if you work from home or start your own business.

Medical coders and medical billers work in doctor’s offices and clinics, in hospitals or for dentists. All three fields require a background or knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy and physiology and you’ll be using special billing or coding or other software.

If you’re a medical biller you’ll be submitting claims to insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid. In some cases to the patients on behalf of clients they may have or their employers. If you choose this field you’ll need to be detail-oriented and accurate. Mistakes can cause problems both for patients and employers. Medical billing jobs usually require you to have medical billing training and certification as a Medical Billing Specialist. You’ll also need to know the rules of the HIPAA.

Medical coders provide codes to medical inpatient and outpatient procedures and services – billing public and private insurance companies. If you’re a medical coder you’ll read patient charts and assign the right code based on established codes derived from the standard classification manuals.

A medical transcriber transcribes medical records. These are usually the doctor’s notes, progress notes, etc. or those of other health professionals such as dentists. You need to be proficient in typing as you’d be doing a lot of it. Many people work from home as medical transcribers too.

So this is the difference between medical billing, medical coding and transcription. Make sure you get fully informed before you sign up for any training or enroll in schools, take online courses or programs. There are many scams to be aware of. Also there is money available from the government for both online and on-campus training. Make sure to check this out too to save yourself a lot of money.