Certified Coding Specialist - Mountwest Community and Technical College

Certified Coding Specialist from Mountwest Community and Technical College is a Campus Certificate Health Administration degree that prepares you for a Healthcare career. Program Description: The Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) serves as a qualified technician in analyzing and classifying medical data. Using universally recognized coding systems (ICD-9-CM and CPT-4), the CCS assigns codes to diagnoses, injuries and procedures found in the records of patients. The codes are then reported to insurance companies or government agencies for payment/reimbursement of patients? health expenses, medical statistics and research. This program will enable the student to become familiar with the coding systems, medical terminology and medical background of anatomy and diseases which will give the student a basis on which to build. Students will also have the opportunity to complete a directed practice of 120 hours in a healthcare setting. This course will prepare students to sit for the CCS exam administered by the American Health Information Association. Please refer to their Website at www.ahima.org for further qualifications for taking the national certification test for the CCS. Career Outlook: Job prospects should be very good. Employment of medical records technicians is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through 2012, due to rapid growth in the number of medical tests, treatments, and procedures that will be increasingly scrutinized by third-party payers, regulators, courts, and consumers. Career Description: Certified Coding Specialists are professionals skilled in classifying medical data from patient records, generally in the hospital setting. These coding practitioners review patients? records and assign numeric codes for each diagnosis and procedure. To perform this task, they must possess expertise in the ICD-9-CM coding system and the surgery section within the CPT coding system. In addition, the CCS is knowledgeable of medical terminology, disease processes, and pharmacology. Hospitals or medical providers report coded data to insurance companies or the government, in the case of Medicare and Medicaid recipients, for reimbursement of their expenses. Researchers and public health officials also use coded medical data to monitor patterns and explore new interventions. Coding accuracy is thus highly important to healthcare organizations because of its impact on revenues and describing health outcomes. Accordingly, the CCS credential demonstrates tested data quality and integrity skills in a coding practitioner. The CCS certification exam assesses mastery or proficiency in coding rather than entry-level skills. Employment Opportunities: Acute care facilities Ambulatory care facilities Rehabilitation centers Physicians? offices State and local health departments Insurance companies Professional billing companies View more details on Mountwest Community and Technical College . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Health Administration courses.