Randy’s Career Tips

We’re no way through this recession.�Every week we look at the unemployment statistics and, with some minor exceptions, the trend is still UP.�Employers continue to reduce their workforce, as a cost-cutting measure, in a difficult economy.�With payroll costs the largest single expenditure for most businesses it’s natural to look at possibilities for “doing more with less.”�And, in many organizations, that means “less” employees! � The unemployment rate as of June, 2009 is over 9%, and climbing.�Most experts predict it will top 10% before year’s end, and that may be optimistic.��

WE’RE UNDERGOING A “SEA CHANGE”

“Sea Change” is a wonderful term, and seems to be particularly applicable to our current economy.�A Sea Change is a massive, formidable occurrence.�It sweeps everything in its path, and like a tsunami, may result in devastation and displacement.�It’s a transformational event.�The U.S. economy is undergoing an economic sea change.�We’ve been through this before, and it’s a major challenge.�Those of you familiar with economic history know that we’ve experienced, in the past century, a change from an agrarian society to an industrial one, an “information age,” internationalization, and a global economy. Along the way we experienced several depressions, recessions and other economic turmoil. Many characterize this a post-industrial era of finance, commerce, and service, on a global scale.��

With all�this change, many workers have been displaced, replaced, or discarded.�Employees, whether white-collar, blue-collar, managerial, or self-employed are experiencing a sense of uneasiness, uncertainty, and economic vulnerability.��

PROTECTING YOUR ECONOMIC VIABILITY�

In times like these, individuals need to be more adaptable, creative and strategic.�It’s important to have options and preparation to be able to “ma Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re thinking about doing medical billing and coding and working from home there are a few things you want to know. First of all do you have the ability or skills or training in order to be able to process claims for doctors, dentists or large clinics.

To process claims at home you’ll either have to be in business for yourself or make some arrangement with your employers to work at home. The employer in this case would be the doctor, dentist or other health professional or clinic that needs medical billing service. This may be difficult to do if you haven’t had the proper training and don’t have the right medical billing software.

Many people who do work from home doing medical billing and/or coding generally have their own business. They have started home businesses after getting the right training. (Coding requires separate training and certification may be required by some employers.)

It would probably be difficult to get on-the-job training and more than likely you’ll have to get training through online courses, programs or schools or on campus locally where you live. There is a national exam for certification as a Medical Billing Specialist that would probably be required by most companies seeking your service. Plus after you get some training you’ll want on-the-job experience so you can learn the ropes. You want to know what you’re doing before you work alone at home.

So one of the things you can do is call some of the clinics in your area and find out whether they do their medical billing and coding in-house or whether they send it out to a billing service. If they do it in-house, ask if they hire people to do additional billing for them at home either by contracting out to you or hiring you to work at home and they would act as employer. There may be a lot of variation in practices in different geographical areas. Read the rest of this entry »