Medical billing and coding is one of the hottest medical professions in great demand with a great deal of job opportunities and rooms for promotion. Promotion will come with increment in pay and added benefits. It always helps to open up a lot of new and excellent opportunities as your value is highly recognized with this promotion.
However how can anyone be in the rightful position to earn for the promotion? What are the key criteria for one to be upgraded to the next level? What are the prerequisite for the job promotion? Here are a few key guidelines for anyone who hope to get a medical and coding job promotion in the near future.
a. Get yourself into the medical coding and billing educational program, preferably from a renowned University with world-wide recognition in the medical billing and coding field. Target for at least one associate degree in this field to create a good opportunity for yourself.
b. Get yourself a specialized certificate in medical coding and billing to sharpen your medical billing skills. Do not be contended with just an associated degree, instead you should try to out shine yourself whenever you can because there may be hundreds of medical coding and billing graduates just like you who are also seeking for related medical jobs in the market. Even if you are already working as a medical biller and wish to increase your proficiency as a medical biller or coder, seeking for this professional course will definitely help to enhance your competency in every component of the medical billing and coding process.
c. Equip yourself with the necessary computer skills to increase your computer proficiency because having good computer skills especially in MS Office is one of the pre-requisite of this profession. Being computer savvy will definitely increase your chance to get the promotion that you have been waiting for.
d. Gain great experience by trying your hands in all elements in medical coding and billing field by exposing yourself to any of possible opportunities in learning new stuffs even if they are not what you are responsible for officially in your current work place. In some case, you may proactively volunteer yourself to replace your colleagues if need to be away from the office for a short duration and is looking for someone to replace them for the mentioned period.
e. Register yourself in the RHIT examination (Registered Health information Technician), employers are more likely to hire and promote someone which had passed this exam.
f. Always stay acquainted with the latest career news by reading weekly career publication articles and news, and be attentive and conscious with your company news and its competitors at the same time. Keep high awareness on the company’s new directions, strategies or market opportunities; always look out for possible ways to improve the company’s image, reputation, and brands in the market.
g. Other than equipping yourself with the knowledge and skill-sets in medical coding and billing, you should also review some of those areas, such as: how to improve your leadership skills, how to improve one’s communication skills, how to be of career competency, how to handle internal conflicts among team members conflicts and a lot more. This is to make sure you are always be prepared if there are any good promotion opportunities for any team leadership role.
