Apart From Having Expertise In Medical Coding Know-how, And Of Course A Coding Certification, A Key

By Author: Celena Rose
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Apart from having expertise in medical coding know-how, and of course a coding certification, a key skill that a professional coder must have is a sound understanding of a federal law called Health Information Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA). It's as important in your career as the codes you use to diagnose services and procedures.


The HIPAA act safeguards patients' rights and keeps their healthcare records safe and secure. The last few decades have witnessed an explosion in the complexity of medical care and in medical records keeping, as well as information needs of medical coding. This act covers any medical information that a doctor, nurse or therapist places in a patient's file.


In order to comply with HIPAA, you'll need to know the unique identification codes for medical procedures, the tech safeguards for privacy, electronic signature rules and the like. Failure to follow HIPAA rules can adversely affect your career and may even lead to sanctions against the doctor or clinic you work for.


Whether you ...
... work in a clinic or a physician's office, your employer must provide you with written privacy procedures. It should provide you with what information you'll have access to, how you may use that information and in what instances you can disclose it. It's important that every employee who works with patient information follow the procedures and policies of HIPAA.


HIPAA & working from home: And if you intend to set up your own business in the future, you must certainly be well-versed with HIPAA. There are many medical coders who enjoy the ability to do the work from the comforts of their own home. But in order to do that, you must be well-informed about the strict rules that exist about taking any protected health information out of a doctor's office.


codingcert.com provides selected trainers that gives you hands-on training for becoming a certified professional coder through medical coding certification at our CPC training camp.