Deciding to go back to school for medical billing and coding can be a great career opportunity. Before selecting a place to attend, it is important to verify that you will be attending an institution that is one of the accredited medical billing and coding schools. Without proper accreditation, your degree may not give you the ability to get ahead in your medical billing and coding career. Accreditation means your school meets certain standards, as do your fellow students. Accreditation is also a condition a school must meet in order for its students to have access to financial aid options and the ability to transfer credits to another institution.
Accredited medical billing and coding schools have to meet certain standards, both in their programs of study and in the quality of their students’ performance. For both the schools and the students, this ensures that the medical billing and coding program is consistently striving to get better and keep up with changes in the industry. Additionally, for future employers, a degree from an accredited school means that they can expect a certain caliber of employee: someone who will be up-to-date on the latest in electronic health records and all other aspects of medical billing and coding.
Types of Medical Billing and Coding Certifications
All accredited medical billing and coding schools should have programs that prepare students to earn at least one of these four types of credentials:
- Certified Professional Coder (CPC); A CPC has a proven ability to understand the rules and regulations of medical coding in a physician’s office environment, including why certain codes are used and how to evaluate and manage coding rules and changes.
- Certified Professional Coder Hospital-Outpatient (CPC-H); Just like a CPC, a CPC-H has a strong understanding of medical coding. One of the main differences with this designation is that a CPC-H focuses on the outpatient setting.
- Certified Professional Coder Payer(CPC-P); A CPC-P is a coder with a focus on the payer’s perspective. This entails an understanding of coding guidelines and types of reimbursement methods.
- Specialty Certification; At least 20 specialty certification credentials are available for medical billers and coders. They do not require a CPC credential, but they are for someone with an extensive coding background. A specialty certification gives someone the opportunity to focus on a specific medical area. One type of specialty certification is Certified Interventional Radiology Cardiovascular Coder (CIRCC).
Medical billing and coding typically are an integral part of the curriculum at accredited online schools for Health Information Management (HIM) or Health Informatics (HI). If you’re an aspiring medical billing and coding professional looking for an accredited online school for medical billing and coding, use the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management (CAHIIM) website as a primary information resource.
The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management (CAHIIM)
CAHIIM is the primary HIM school accreditation body. HIM and HI degree programs seeking accreditation are subject to "a rigorous process of voluntary peer review" and must meet or exceed the minimum accreditation standards set by CAHIIM. Medical billing and coding is a skill set that is typically part of HIM and HI degree programs. If you’re an aspiring medical billing and coding professional, school accreditation is important particularly when searching for degrees that are earned online. Some degree programs offered on the Internet can be unaccredited and/or scams. CAHIIM is an important first step in your search for a reputable online degree program. Use their Accredited Program Directory to search for CAHIIM-accredited online schools for medical billing and coding degree levels that include:
- An Accredited Masters Health Information Management (HIM) or Accredited Masters Health Informatics (HI) Program
- An Accredited Baccalaureate HIM Program
- An Accredited Associate Program
You can narrow your CAHIIM database search by selecting a specific health informatics or information degree, a specific state location and either a 100% or partial distance learning option.
- CAHIIM-accredited schools with online Masters HIM or HI programs include the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, which offers a "100% online" HIM entry level master’s degree that doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree. This program is accredited through CAHIIM. They also have a post-graduate online HIM master’s degree that requires a baccalaureate. The College of St. ScholasticsL in Duluth, Minnesota has a Master of Science in Health Information Management degree that is a combination of online and offline coursework. Other CAHIIM-accredited HIM Masters programs include: the University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Alabama and the University of Cincinnati.
- CAHIIM-accredited schools with online baccalaureate HIM programs like Stephens College in Missouri only require one onsite campus visit for their Bachelor of Science in Health Information Administration degree program. Other bachelor’s HIM programs include Clarkson College in Omaha, Nebraska, Georgia Health Sciences University and the Indiana University School of Informatics
- CAHIIM-accredited schools with coding associate’s programs include Portland Community College, Central Arizona College, Idaho State University, Dallas County Community College and Santa Barbara City College.
If you are an aspiring medical coding and billing professional looking for a certificate rather than an HIM or HI degree, visit the AHIMA website. This organization specifically accredits online medical coding and billing schools.
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)
If you’re looking for a medical billing and coding certification rather than a degree program, consider enrolling in one of AHIMA’s accredited online medical coding and billing schools, including its Distance Education Campus and Virtual Lab.
- AHIMA’s Distance Education Campus offers online coding basics courses that are approved by the American Council on Education (ACE) and transferable for college credit. The Distance Education Campus also offers online programs such as Cancer Registry Management (CRM), Clinical Documentation Improvement, Clinical Terminology Services, Coding Assessment and Training Solutions, Healthcare Information Management and HIPAA, Privacy and Security. These programs include medical coding and billing skill sets.
- AHIMA Virtual Lab offers training in multiple health information technology software applications. These include Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) applications like ATHENS/Cerner PowerChart and HIM ProFile and patient identity management and duplicate record management applications like QuadraMed MPI Suite. Encoder applications for ICD-9 and ICD-10 medical codes include QuadraMed Quantim Encoders and the 3M Coding and Reimbursement System. There is also Virtual Lab training for McKesson Horizon Patient Folder, a document imaging system for managing health records.
The American Association of Professional Coders (AAPC)
The American Association of Professional Coders (AAPC) was founded in 1988 to provide professional certification to physician-based medical coders. AAPC offers online medical coding and billing courses geared toward training for Certified Professional Coder (CPC) or Certified Professional Coder -Hospital Outpatient (CPC-H) coding certification. Training includes the application of CPT, HCPCS Level II, and ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes.
The National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA)
The National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA) offers its Online Education Center and its online preparation courses for the Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR) credentialing examination. Medical coding and billing are a part of the skill set needed for a CTR professional.
About our expert. Jan Jacobs has worked in medical offices since the early 1980's. Ms. Jacobs has worked for M.D.'s and D.O.'s in primary care and specialty care. She is employed as a senior medical biller and has been at her current job for nearly 10 years, where she uses three different billing systems.
