Do Medical Coders Have a Recession Proof Job?
Credit market meltdown, bailouts, stock market crash, and hurricanes. That about summarizes the financial disaster happening in the US in 2008. So what’s a working stiff to do? Those who still can, should think about recession proof careers and jobs.
Recession proof jobs are so essential to our society that we cannot do without them. One such job are medical coders. Why? Two major things happening in our society: people living longer and more are being born. Take note that the baby boomers (hippie generation) are retiring, yet their parents are still alive. Older folks need medical attention whether preventive or actual medical care. So they’re making regular visits to clinics and hospitals.
Also, in 2007, a record high of babies were born, a number not seen since the baby boom years. Although experts have not yet disclosed the sources for birth, one thing is certain, these babies will require care. They will also be visiting clinics and hospitals for proper care.
It will be up to medical coders and other health information technicians to accurately record these visits for computer access and readability. Additionally, medical transcriptionists have the opportunity to work from home. They usually receive their assignments from an agency or directly from a hospital or clinic and take it home to complete.
Another great thing with medical coders is that they can negotiate their own contract directly with a clinic or hospital as a freelance contractor instead of working as an employee. Hence, the future of jobs in this field is fantastic.
WHAT ARE MEDICAL CODERS
Medical coders are specialists in the health information field. They organize and evaluate patient records for accuracy, collect, prepare and analyze statistical data, code diseases and operations for insurance purposes, and in general, provide quality control.
POTENTIAL HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNICIAN AND MEDICAL CODER SALARY
The median annual income for health information technicians was $28,030 in May 2006, according to a survey conducted by the National Bureau of Labor Statistics. The highest earner made more than $45,260.
HOW TO BECOME A CERTIFIED MEDICAL CODER
Medical coder schools offer classes in health information technology, medical terminology, legal training, anatomy and physiology, statistics, and computer science.
Generally, those who finish their medical coding education will receive an associate’s degree. It is best to become a Registered Health Information Technical through certification by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Medical coder courses and preparation classes for the AHIMA certificate are available as traditional and online classes.
