My Medical Coding Bridge Journey- Week 1
Posted by Chad Sines on Fri, Feb 10, 2012 @ 03:46 PM
I recently began Med-Line’s Medical Coding Bridge continuing education program. I thought it would be fun to chronicle my journey through the process and hopefully inspire some other MTs to step up to this fun challenge of broadening skill sets at a critical time in this EHR transition.
This first post is more about the why as this chapter was a review and orientation for what is to come. For those wondering if it will fit into their schedules, I am currently working full time and working on my Doctor in Business Administration full time. I am further ahead in the program than this post and to date have had no issues completing at least one chapter a week. The material flows well with what I know as an MT.
I decided to take Med-Line’s Medical Coding Bridge program because this has been a skill I have wanted to learn for a while. I am not planning to leave this industry. My reason for learning this skill set was to open up more opportunities at a time when medical coders are leading major changes that will affect us all. When I had looked into a medical coding program previously, the costs were prohibitive, required attending a brick & mortar program, or were just too long based on my current educational background. I have a vision of the future of healthcare documentation experts as people who transcribe, code, and bill reports. I will write more about that later, but suffice to say this is an area that has interested me a lot.
Looking at the level of medical knowledge the medical coder and the medical transcription requires (based on model curriculums for both), the MT has a much more in depth medical knowledge skill set and the medical coder has more HIM training; however, many MTs learn this level of HIM as they are practicing. This was an 'aha' moment as you can see how an MT can easily put themselves into a position of knowing a coder's skills; however, the reverse will require extensive re-training. I smell an opportunity here.
The instructor gave me some excellent advice for the course. Do all the exercises whether you think you know the material or not. Skimming through the rest of the book I can see a lot of real medical record reports to code and lots of exercises for each chapter.
The first chapter was a good review of some medical terminology and anatomy and physiology. It was well placed because it allows each MT to demonstrate that they have the basic prerequisites to begin the course. It also allows one to get a feel for the course, read over the syllabi, etc. The reading took about 30-45 minutes. The assignments took about an hour and the exam about another hour. I ended this chapter with a 100 for the test. It pays to double check all your answers. :)
On to chapter two.
Chad Sines, MS, MBA, AHDI-F
Director of Admissions