by Anonymous
I recently was employed with a radiology business and was laid off due to the business was bought by another radiology company. The manager changed our job title from Collector to Medical Insurance Specialist she says because she thought we did almost everything related to billing, coding, and collections. While I have a 2 year degree in Medical Insurance Billing and Coding, I did not do much direct billing, only resubmitting claims. What am I – Biller, Coder, or Collector (A/R)?
Response:
Sounds like your title could be either medical billing specialist or insurance billing specialist – or medical biller. I really think of them as the same thing – that medical billing includes A/R and claim submission. In medical billing the insurance claim processing is the biggest part of what we do because getting paid by the insurance company makes up the bulk of the reimbursement. I think a lot of these job titles are used interchangeably.
So many people use medical billing and coding interchangeably but they are both vital to the reimbursement process. And many times they are performed by the same people. Medical coding is a portion of the medical billing process which includes not only assigning the correct codes. I tend to think of a medical coder or medical coding specialist as being associated with someone who is a certified coder with AAPC or AHIMA credentials.
I don’t dwell a lot on job titles – there are times when I could be called an A/R specialist, or an insurance billing specialist, a patient billing specialist, a collection specialist, or a medical coder, or just a plain old medical biller.
But back to your situation – it sounds like from your description you performed a lot of different tasks in both billing and coding. Depending on the new job you are applying for I would emphasize that experience based on the job description and maybe rework your resume to bring out that experience and skills relevant to the job.
If you are applying for a medical billing job I would certainly emphasize your experience in preparing and submitting insurance claims, working on A/R, working with insurance companies, and familiarity with coding. That kind of experience is really valuable to a lot of employers.
Thanks for visiting the site – hope this answers your question.