Medical Office Specialist - Delta College Inc

Medical Office Specialist from Delta College Inc is a Campus Certificate Health Administration degree that prepares you for a Healthcare career. The Medical Office Specialist program is designed to prepare students for a broad spectrum of entry level employment in the Medical Office and related occupations. A student completing this program can perform many tasks including medical/dental insurance coding & billing, medical/dental transcription, reception duties, medical filling & records, medical secretarial duties, and medical bookkeeping. Graduates will be prepared to gain national certification through testing in Medical Office Administration, Medical Transcription, and Medical Billing & Coding. Approximate completion time: Day?7.5 months NATURE OF THE WORK: Every time a patient receives health care, a record is maintained of the observations, medical or surgical interventions, and treatment outcomes. This record includes information that the patient provides concerning his or her symptoms and medical history, the results of examinations, reports of X rays and laboratory tests, diagnoses, and treatment plans. Medical records and health information technicians organize and evaluate these records for completeness and accuracy. Some medical records and health information technicians specialize in coding patients' medical information for insurance purposes. Technicians who specialize in coding are called health information coders, medical record coders, coder/abstractors, or coding specialists. These technicians assign a code to each diagnosis and procedure. They consult classification manuals and also rely on their knowledge of disease processes. Medical records and health information technicians' duties vary with the size of the facility where they work. In large to medium sized facilities, technicians might specialize in once aspect of health information or might supervise health information clerks and transcriptionists. In small facilities, a credentialed medical records and health information technician sometimes manages the department. WORKING CONDITIONS: Medical records and health information technicians usually work a 40-hour wee in pleasant and comfortable surroundings. In hospitals - where health information departments often are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - technicians may work day, evening, and night shifts. This is one of the few health occupations win which there is little or no direct contact with patients. Because accuracy is essential for their jobs, close attention must be paid to every detail. EMPLOYMENT: Medical records and health information technicians held about 159,000 jobs in 2004. About 2 out of 5 jobs were in hospitals. The rest were mostly in offices of physicians, nursing care facilities, out-patient care centers, and home health care services. Insurance firms that deal in health matters employ a small number of health information technicians to tabulate and analyze health information. Public health departments also hire technicians to supervise data collection from health care institutions and to assist in research. JOB OUTLOOK: Employment of medical records and health information technicians is expected to grow much faster than average for all occupations through 2014 because of rapid growth in the number of medial tests, treatments and procedures that will be increasingly scrutinized by health insurance companies, regulators, courts, and consumers. Individuals with a strong background in medical coding will be in particularly high demand. Changing government regulations and the growth of managed care have increased the amount of paperwork involved in filing insurance claims. View more details on Delta College Inc . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Health Administration courses.