Medical Billing From Home

Many people are lured into the field of medical billing with advertisements that promise high wages and the chance to work from home. Unfortunately too many people find themselves robbed of their dreams of medical billing from home once they hand over their money.

The Truth About Medical Billing From Home

Home-based medical billing training and a “ready to go” business is what many advertisers will promise but the Federal Trade Commission warns that too few of these promises will be fulfilled. What typically happens is that the promoter sells a software package, a listing of physicians in your area and perhaps throws in some textbooks or billing forms. Generally, packages are priced from $2,000 to $5,000. So what is the problem with these kinds of packaged offers?

First, medical billing at home is a complex and very competitive business. There are specialty areas of billing just as there are specialty areas of medicine. There are also federal laws governing everything from the electronic transmission of information to patient confidentiality. A wrong billing filed, even when it's unintentional, can result in severe penalties and criminal charges.

Second, the business of home medical billing means you would potentially be entrusted to bill for the services provided by a physician whose sole source of income is dependent upon your abilities. So now ask yourself: Why would a physician entrust his total annual income and his medical practice to someone who has no experience, no supervision, no references from other medical providers, and lacks educational credits from an accredited program?

Third, while wide ranging estimates of the earnings of medical billers are posted by these promoters of home-based study programs, it's almost impossible to find credible sources of information concerning the numbers of people working in this manner and their earnings. A study done on self-employed workers as a whole reports that the self-employed tend to earn 70 – 80% of what their full-time employed counterparts earn. The median hourly wage of a full-time medical biller is $10 - $12 an hour according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

It's important to know that home-based medical billers in the U.S. are not only in competition with the employees of medical billing services but they are also in competition with medical billers in places such as India . Many medical billing companies are outsourcing their billing work to billers in India who are paid considerably less than their U.S. counterparts.

Yes, it is possible to do medical billing from home but the learning curve is steep.The work of building a business will require lots of determination and persistence, and coping with the competition will require savvy business skills. Only if you are ready for all those challenges should you consider a career in medical billing from home.

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