Medical coding is pretty simple really. Just imagine that you could assign a certain number to every disease, disorder, ailment, medical complaint, or condition to designate diagnosis, and another number to every procedure used to designate treatment for those diseases, disorders or ailments, and you'd have "coding." That, essentially, is what medical coding is all about. It's the translation of tedious and cometimes copious diagnostic and treatment information into standardized numerical codes.

What purpose does this codification serve? Good question, we thought you'd never ask! Well, one of the primary benefits of using codes to describe what might otherwise be pages upon pages of tedious and copiously worded descriptions, is that it allows for the production of simple insurance claim forms that contain all of the information about a patient's condition and treatment on just a few lines on a form. The codes provide a wealth of information on health issues. The data accumulated is used in medicine and government for epidiomologic research, statistical analysis and planning, as a code can be much easier to collate than the 220 characters in a paragraph of transcribed text. Between the medical provider and the insurer, once the codes are determined, insurance claims are digitally sent and processed for payment. Of course, way WAY back in the '90s, many were still printed an mailed!, if you can believe that.

So, how does the process really work? Well, it all starts in the provider's office. At the encounter, the provider does the exam, listens and probes and taps and draws, and figures out what's wrong. He dictates or inputs the patient data into an electronic record, which are often transcribed by medical transcriptionists (training we also have done for 40 years). The coder takes the record and determines the code for the services performed (CPT Codes - Current Procedural Terminology) and the diagnosis (ICD Codes - International Classification of Diseases).

How difficult is it? You have to learn medical terminology so you will understand the information you are processing and can alphabetically look up the codes needed. Terminology is the first step in the training. Then you learn about types of codes, e.g., the theory. Finally, you code about 600 actual patient charts and that's where you learn it all. It's equivalent to 6 months to a year of practical in-office experience.

Meditech has been in the Medical Coding business since 1969, and was one of the very first companies in the United States to begin offering medical coding training courses online via the Web. With this you can learn at home at your own pace, and that's been shown to be pretty hard to beat! Becoming a medical coder does not require an advanced college degree, nor does it require an enormous investment of capital to get started in practice. Meditech has more than 40 years experience in the medical transcription, coding, and billing business - we know how to train you, and we know how to help you achieve your goals.

We do everything we do to make the process smooth and easy for you. All we want to know is how we can help.