Medical Coding is a booming career option
Every year, millions of graduates and post-graduates join the workforce, but most are only qualification-ready and lack the necessary skill sets. As a result, unemployment increases. In most cases, unemployment is a result of the prospective candidates not being job-ready. According to various industry reports, the predicted size of the Indian healthcare industry is set to be about US$ 280 billion by 2020. This is indicative of a rise in the number of hospitals and healthcare systems, thereby leading to a rise in the number job opportunities in various fields of healthcare industry, other than core medical professions like medicine and pharmacy. This also re-affirms the fact that the industry has enormous growth opportunities for the medical BPOs/KPOs especially in the field of medical billing and coding, patient collection services, HME (Home Medical Equipment) billing and other medical data management related services. Medical coding is one of the booming careers in healthcare management industry.
What is medical coding?
Medical coding is an upcoming in-demand field in the stream of Healthcare Administration. A medical coder extracts information from patients' medical records and converts them to industry-standard medical code, which is accepted universally. These codes are used to process claims with third-party players, collect stats to track information of specific disease, treatment etc.
Who can study medical coding?
To pursue medical coding, an individual must have a bachelor's degree or master's degree, preferably from life science background. One must have the analytical ability to read and analyse medical records and patient details, and assign the right codes.
What does Omega Medical Coding Academy do?
At Omega Medical Coding Academy (OMCA), we train students on medical coding with the mission to deliver high-caliber medical coders to the healthcare BPO industry. The academy follows rigorous training standards and world-class syllabus, delivered by AAPC (American Association of Professional Coders) certified trainers. We deliver cost effective medical coding education and make it accessible to thousands. Our OMCA certification and training equips fresh graduates with the necessary skill sets to start working on critical processes immediately. With centers across Bengaluru, Chennai and Trichy, we have trained and placed nearly 2000+ coders.
Career prospects for a medical coder
As the number of organizations looking for medical coding specialists increases, students can look forward to a growing job market with plenty of options. The general career progression of a medical coder is as follows:
Trainee Coder
Coder
Senior Coder
Quality Analyst in Coding
Specialized Process Coach (Emergency Department /In-Patient / Evaluation and Management/Surgery Coder/Radiology/Anesthesia/Pathology) and many more
Team Lead
Process Lead
Manager
Assistant Manager
Senior Manager
How is the demand for medical coders, in general?
India is the preferred destination for offshore medical coding and medical billing. The healthcare industry is growing at a great pace with the demand for medical coders increasing exponentially. The demand & supply gap of certified medical coders is approximately 40% and the gap has been widening over the last two years. Being one of the most demanding sectors, medical coding is undoubtedly creating numerous job opportunities for medical enthusiasts and life sciences students.
Impact of Technology on medical coding
While every other sector and job is being impacted by Technology and automation, medical coding may not face many challenges in terms of human resource. The recent advance of computer assisted coding (CAC) has only helped ease the job of medical coders. It is a tool which helps improve productivity and increase accuracy of the highly critical coding process. Coding being the very first step in revenue cycle management process, automated coding is a step towards processing claims faster as well. Automated coding is in fact helping save costs easing the work of coding operations.
A suitable job for women
Medical coding is a very apt job for women. Being a desk job it is a comfortable job for women with fixed working hours. As this profession involves organizing and maintaining medical information converting them into predefined codes it is well-designed for women, as women are believed to be good at managing and organizing things. Omega is under a mission to empower women in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Although healthcare outsourcing represents only 5-10% of total outsourcing market, the likeliness of growth is relatively high because of the growing demands for quality care. The need and demand for medical coding will only keep rising in the coming years. Thus, medical coding is certainly a great career option for students looking for a rewarding, challenging, well-respected and remunerative profession.
