Benefits of Medical Billing Seminars, and Where to Find Them

Medical billing seminars are events where industry professionals gather to learn new skills, new techniques, and new guidelines in medical billing and coding.

Each year, new regulations are put in place to help solve problems and make working within the healthcare industry easier, as well as to make room for technological advancements and changing within healthcare laws.

Common codes are replaced with new ones. Medical coding guidelines get updated. General billing practices are changed.

Sometimes these changes occur on a monthly basis. Other times, the changes occur on a quarterly or annual basis. This means it's extremely important to keep up-to-date.

Seminars are a great way to do this. They teach new changes in the rules and regulations, as well as new software developments and business management tools.

In short, billing and coding seminars teach those in the healthcare industry everything that is needed to keep up to date with their profession.

Organizations providing seminars

There are many different types of seminars, some of which are provided by companies who are promoting their own products, such as practice management software companies.

Other seminars are provided by educational organizations, such as the AAPC (the American Academy of Professional Coders), and AHIMA (the American Health Information Management Association). Still other seminars are provided by insurance companies and regulating bodies, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and CMS.

No matter who puts on the seminar, they are always a good idea to attend. Even if the seminar is intended to promote a certain product or software, which you don't want to buy, it will still provide you with an opportunity to learn more about the technological advancements happening in the healthcare industry.

For more information and opportunities for real medical billing seminars, you may want to consider the following possibilities:

• Precision Medical Billing
  Precision Medical Billing offers seminars that are designed to help medical billers add to their training and certifications. Increasing the amount of certifications and levels of training will allow you as a biller to also increase the kinds of clients you are qualified to take on.


• ZHealth Publishing
  ZHealth Publishing offers online and offline seminars and training sessions for medical coders. Coders will gain new information on coding updates, and medical billers will be able to prepare themselves for changes to billing processes.


• Coding Conferences
  Coding Conferences offers offline seminars on a variety of topics including medical billing, general medical knowledge and medical coding.


• Practice Admin
  PracticeAdmin offers medical billing training and seminars about the billing process and what billers need to know about changes to insurance coverage and billing requirements.


• CMS
  CMS, or the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, offers many seminars each month. These seminars encompass everything involved with medical billing and coding, especially that which is concerned with changes and updates in Medicare and Medicaid. Because CMS is a driving force within the medical community, CMS seminars are a great way to keep up-to-date with the healthcare industry.


• Certifying Organizations
  Most certifying organizations offer seminars as a way to earn CEUs and stay abreast of changes in the certification area. These organizations include the AAPC, AHIMA, and AMBA, among many others, depending on your certification type.


• Insurance Companies
  

  Insurance companies also offer many seminars, each of which is usually organized to introduce new providers to the insurance company and how it is run. Sometimes these seminars describe changes within the insurance company and things that are new to the company.

  If your office is contracted with an insurance company and it is offering a seminar in your area, it is always a good idea to go. They may include important information about changes within the insurance company, and provide you with updated forms to use for business with them.

You may also want to check the American Medical Association (AMA) website, or state department of health website for more information on upcoming seminars.

Medical Billing Seminars and CEUs

One of the most important things about medical billing seminars is that they provide those with coding or billing certificates the opportunity for CEUs. What this means is that in addition to becoming more educated about your field, they also allow you to remain certified.

What's a CEU?

CEU stands for Continuing Education Unit. Once you become a certified biller or coder, you'll have to get a certain number of CEUs per year in order to keep your certification. This makes sure that you are actively learning about and involved with your certification area.

Many seminars come along with a certain number of CEUs attached to them. That means if you go to a seminar that is approved by your certifying body, then you can usually earn free CEUs to help you remain certified in your area.

See this article on coding CEUs for more...

Which seminars to go to...?

You may be overwhelmed by the amount of different medical billing seminars, and not sure which ones to attend.

As a medical biller or coder, you should go to at least 1 seminar a year. If you are certified, you'll probably need to attend more than 1 in order to earn your CEUs and keep your certification.

As a rule, if you are working with an insurance company and they offer a seminar, you should go to it, just to keep abreast of their practices.

As for the other seminars, you should find ones that fill in the gaps of your medical billing and coding experience.

You should also go to seminars that will enhance your knowledge in an important area, such as Evaluation and Management Coding or Managing the Revenue Cycle.

Attending seminars regularly will also help you stay on top of changes in the healthcare industry that may affect your business practices or career. Some of these changes won't affect you at all, but others may make a massive change in your daily routine.

Whether you're just starting out and want to learn medical billing and coding, or you want to keep your skills and knowledge of the industry up-to-date, attending medical billing seminars regularly is an important part of the medical billing profession.

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