If you didn’t know, places like Amazon and Walmart are looking for medical coders and billers.
Yes, really.
Have you considered working for (and these are just a few):
Think outside of the box in your search.
In the past, I’ve submitted proposals and received contracts by going outside of the traditional.
This is a question that I received:
“How can a person audit a specialty that she has never coded?”
There are different types of audits, but if your question is specific to coding accuracy audits, the reviewer should be an expert in the specialty.
Now, job descriptions vary for required credentials and experience, but the standard requirement is proficiency or expertise in the areas to be audited.
Recently, an auditor asked for opinions for a scenario. She said that she had never coded the specialty, and she wanted to make sure her findings were correct.
If you are still learning a specialty, you are not ready to audit the specialty.
Never have I ever audited a specialty that I could not code.
I’ve often said that my strength is in knowing my weakness.
I have declined auditing opportunities because I was not an expert in the area. I’ve also referred others who were more experienced in specific areas.
I assign auditing assignments based upon the reviewers’ credentials, areas of expertise, and previous Q/A results of the auditors’ findings.
Let me know your thoughts.
It’s been said that ego is a powerful drug, and insecurity is a poison that should never be ingested.
Well, I say it, and in my experiences, neither is good in this industry.
If you get to the point where you think you know everything, get out of the industry. You’re a liability to the practice.
I wanted to say that to a coder, but of course, I had to keep the mask on and maintain professionalism.
Recently, I did a training session with a group of coders, and one (there’s always one, right?) kept interrupting to share her previous experience in the industry and her accomplishments.
Her behavior did not impress the group or me.
The coder has decades of experience as an auditor and educator, but she’s new to the system.
I could not reach her because she kept interrupting me to share her previous work experience.
Look, you know this is inside the mind of a medical coder. This is my space to say what I’m thinking, not necessarily professional (behind the mask).
So, I’ll continue.
I wanted to tell her to shut up, listen, and learn. Instead, I tried to use gentle prodding to help her focus on what she needed to know.
I’m not sure the coder learned anything because when we finished the session, she provided a recap and focused on complimenting my presentation instead of what she had learned.
I saw a couple of reasons for her behavior:
First, I received her behavior as egotistical.
This industry is constantly changing. The guidelines are updated, codes are added, deleted, or modified, payer-specific rules change, even the software we use changes.
We have to adapt to changes.
I’ve often said that there’s no room for ego in this industry.
I found a great article from 2017 that you may find insightful as well.
Coffee With a Medical Coding Auditor 