The process of medical claim billing involves first converting medical data into standard medical codes which are then submitted as a bill consisting of those codes to the relevant insurance companies who then pay the claim using pre-agreed payments for particular combinations of codes.
The job of medical billing is considered a sub-area of medical coding as the information in the medical bills is sent in the form of these standard medical codes. These professions are great career choices right now due to the rising percentage of elderly people in the populations of western world countries. The number of jobs in these areas is rising significantly faster than the average.
The interaction between the medical billing of claims and the insurance company paying for those claims is not always straightforward or simple. There are often disagreements about how much can be claimed for and other sources of error in the process. Some insurance companies still process claims using a paper-based system instead of doing things electronically, which leads to additional errors as well as considerable delays.
One method of helping get claims processed quickly and effectively is to submit the bills via a clearing house instead of directly. This reduces the amount of errors and speeds up the process.
There is now a company given the task of finding errors in medical claims. Large numbers of errors are found, mostly concerning over payment. The fact that the company involved gets paid according to the amount of money it recovers by correcting errors is controversial for obvious reasons.
Most medical claims are currently submitted electronically, mostly using specialist software. Ability to use this software is one of the areas medical billing employees are trained in.
Medical claim billing is a vital part of any healthcare business, and a good career choice currently.
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