Medical Coding Services and HIPAA Compliance

In the temporary medical staffing industry, the necessity or non-necessity of becoming JCAHO compliant is a hot topic, which we have written about in the past in the Recruiting and Staffing Solutions Magazine: To Certify or Not to Certify. In fact, some healthcare staffing companies use their JCAHO compliance as a selling point when it comes to differentiating themselves from other medical staffing vendors.

Along the same competitive lines, we found a medical billing and coding blog who cautions healthcare providers to choose medical coding and medical billing vendors who are HIPAA compliant.

In their blog entry entitled, Worried about HIPAA Compliance when Outsourcing, the Outsource Management Group (a medical billing, medical coding, practice management and consulting firm located in Indiana) dishes out some advice that medical coding business owners might want to pay attention to when looking for prospective customers.

AAPC Announces 14 Medical Coding Specialty Certifications

In response to the growing demand in the medical profession for coders with individualized training in particular medical specialties, the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) is expanding its certification offering to now include 14 specialty-specific credentials. These certifications complement AAPC’s core Certified Professional Coder (CPC™), Certified Professional Coder-Hospital (CPC-H™) and Certified Professional Coder-Payer (CPC-P™) certifications.

AAPC’s 14 specialty certifications include:

  • Ambulatory Surgical Center (CPC–ASC)
  • Anesthesia (CPC-ANEST)
  • Cardiology (CPC-CARDIO)
  • Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (CPC-CTS)
  • E/M Auditor (CPC-E/M)
  • Family Practice Medicine (CPC-FP)
  • Gastroenterology (CPC-GI)
  • General Surgery (CPC-GENSG)
  • Internal Medicine (CPC-INTMED)
  • Obstetrics/Gynecology (CPC-OBGYN)
  • Orthopedics (CPC-ORTHO)
  • Otolaryngology (CPC-ENT)
  • Pediatrics (CPC-PEDS)
  • Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery (CPC-PLRS)

AAPC’s specialty certifications are available for those individuals who already hold CPC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CCS, or CCS-P designations and wish to demonstrate superior levels of expertise in selected disciplines of medical coding.

Click here to read the entire press release: AAPC Announces 14 Medical Coding Specialty Certifications
Specialty credentials ensure higher standard of coding

AAPC Announces Results Of 2007 Salary Survey

Just announced in the BC Advantage e-newsletter, the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) released information collected from their 2007 Salaray Survey. Please read below for some highlights of the survey’s findings.

Certified coders earn an average of 17 percent more than their non-certified counterparts, according to the 2007 salary survey by the American Academy of Professional Coders, the nation’s largest education and credentialing organization for medical coders.

Other highlights from the survey include:

  • Administrators and consultants brought in the most money, both averaging more than $85,000 a year.
  • Coding professionals with master’s degrees took a huge leap this year, earning more than $85,000 a year – last year’s survey showed those with master’s degrees earned an average of $55,000 annually.
  • Coders with bachelor’s degrees earned between $40,000 – $45,000; coders with some college earned $30,000 – $35,000 a year.
  • Eight percent of coders with specialty credentials earned more than $85,000 annually.
  • Location, location, location: coders in urban settings earned more than those in rural or suburban areas.

“Each year, our salary survey shows a consistent difference between certified and non-certified coder salaries,” said Sheri Poe Bernard, CPC, CPC-H, CPC-P, vice president of member relations at AAPC. “At AAPC, we are constantly working to help more coding professionals get certified and into higher paying jobs. We are also increasing the value of credentials daily, making our certified coders more competitive in the industry.”

  • This year, 5,155 certified and non-certified coders participated in the salary survey. To view the full results and a break down of average salary by title, look in this month’s issue of Coding Edge magazine or visit AAPC’s Web site.

ASAPro Professional Development Center

We received this email yesterday from the American Staffing Association about an exciting new professional development center that medical staffing agency owners can use to their benefit.  See below for the complete description:
ASAPro, the new convenient, online professional development center, will open its screens for viewing Oct. 9.
What is ASAPro? A new e-learning center where you can get cost-effective online educational programs to aid your professional development. The most current staffing topics, such as recruiting, sales, employment law, operations, and best practices, will be delivered right to your computer desktop so you can learn at your own pace and on your own schedule.
ASAPro is your one-stop center to prepare for the Certified Staffing Professional™ and Technical Services Certified™ exams, earn and track continuing education hours, and easily access new training opportunities to enhance your industry knowledge and stay abreast of current trends.
For more information, contact Amanda Morgan at amorgan@americanstaffing.net or 703-253-2039.
10/23/07: As a follow-up to this posting, ASAPro went live at Staffing World 2007 in San Antonio, TX.  We’re interested to see what its users think of the e-learning center.
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