How to become a Certified Medical Biller

How to become a Certified Medical Biller

Are you interested in becoming a certified medical biller? If so, this post will help guide you into the career.

It shows the training and certification programs you need to complete to develop essential medical biller skills to succeed on the job.

Who is a Medical Biller?

A medical biller reviews patient and hospital records, count charges, explore and forward claims, respond to patient questions, and take care of payments.

A biller may concentrate on handling customer relations, submission of claims, or receiving of accounts; or rather, diversify into many or all Revenue Cycle Management.

Educational Requirements and Career Pathway

Medical billing is a career that requires a high school diploma or equivalent GED certificate, and usually takes months rather than years to complete.

Nonetheless, most employers look out for workers with some form of college or higher degree. The most valuable ones are skillful in accounting, communication, and computing.

The various ways that billers can acquire training include certificate, on-the-job, web-related learning program or degree program.

It commonly takes two to three semesters to actually obtain a college certificate.

Required courses for obtaining a college certificate include:

• Medical reimbursement
• Medical terminology
• Basic anatomy
• Accounting
• Physiology

How to Obtain Certification for Billers

As a biller who actually desires to gain absolute recognition in the billing world, you ought to go for a certification program from a renowned certifying body.

The issuing of certificate will create an opportunity for employment, and also attract many other benefits.

The Certified Professional Biller (CPB)

The Certified Professional Biller (CPB) is a certification program run by AAPC. The aim is to prepare billers for effective use of skills in the revenue cycle.

Before you can get certified in the CPB certification program, you are to take an exam that comprises 200 choice questions.

The exam takes duration of five (5) hours and forty (40) minutes to complete, and you are allowed to retake the exam within one year of first attempt if perhaps you fail.

The program costs $350, but AAPC students can pay $290. There are lots of manuals that accompany the payment procedure.

The program will make you understand the different types of insurance plans, and give you the knowledge of CPT, ICD-10-CM, and HCPCS Level II coding guidelines.

You will also get used to the revenue cycle lifestyle and how to improve on it.

The CMRS Billing Certification Program

The Certifying Board of the American Medical Billing Association (CBAMBA) award CMRS.

The CMRS has voluntary credential exam mainly for medical billing pros, which has been in existence for over 15 years.

The CMRS exam can be taken through their secure Learning Management System.

Students have 45 days access to complete the open-book exam. Each section of the exam may be reviewed before submission, and during submission a grade for that section will be made available.

You are allowed two free retakes for 30 days but not more than 60 days.

There is an immediate display of the final score once you have completed the exam, and you will receive your CMRS Certification by mail within three to four weeks.

The certification will be valid for one year from the date the exam is completed. In order for you to extend your certification for another year, you have to submit 15 continuing education units (CEU).

There is a study guide material which costs $199 to purchase and available through CMRS online store in pdf form.

The study guide can be referred to any time during the exam for knowledge of the exam layout.

You must be a member of AMBA in order for you to take the exam, and this will require an annual payment of $99 and 15 Continuing Exam Units (CEU).

In order to pass the exam successfully, you must have knowledge of medical billing and in possession of a high school diploma or equivalent before you can sit for the exam.

Licensure for Certified Billers

The only license you need as a certified biller is a business license issued within the community where you function.

The actual cost for a state license falls within $200 and $250 a year. The renewable yearly cost for the license depends on how much the business made the previous year.

Job Duties and Responsibilities for Billers

After the coders have finished coding data, billers will use the coded data to compile and submit claims to insurance companies, and then eventually bill patients.

Various job tasks for billers are as follows:

• Knowledge of Medicare and Medicaid
• Review accuracy of bills prepared for patients
• Contact companies for unpaid claims
• Answer patient and insurance calls and inquires
• Monitor accuracy of insurance payment
• Review accounts with aim of following up on insurance companies or patients
• Submit claims to insurance companies
• Keep and manage records of payment accounts
• See detailed medical biller job description.

Employment Opportunities for Certified Billers

Certified billers can meet employment opportunities in hospitals, physician’s office, pharmacies, dental offices, surgical suppliers, optical centers, drug treatment centers, federal and state governments (for Medicare and Medicaid claims), insurance companies, nursing homes, laboratories, and rehab facilities.

Billers’ job entails working with computer and telephone, and their job duties may be full or part time. Most of them decide to work from their homes in an independent environment.

The Median Salary for Certified Billers

The median salary for certified billers in the United States is $15 per hour, $670 per week, $2,918 per month or $35,231 per year.

New Jersey was recorded to have had the highest wages for billing at $57,800 per year, while California followed with $43,700 per year.

Colorado comes next with $43,900 annual billing salary, followed by Connecticut with $42,600 yearly income for billers.

Conclusion

You can become a certified medical biller by taking the steps outlined above.

Did you find the above guide on becoming a certified medical biller useful? Please share your thought about this post in the comment box below. If you have other helpful information on how to become a medical biller, do also share it.