This is my personal experience; it was definitely tough but i am glad it is over. Stay tuned for an update on my newest certification training.
My experience in medical billing and coding trade school
In this video, a student explains her experience with trade school and the programs she took was medical billing and coding. She explains how she went to a 4 year college at first and stayed for only a year before she decided she didn’t like it. Then she found a trade school and it piqued her interest.
Trade school at first glance
When she first entered school she came in as a pharmacy tech but after talking with the admissions office she decided medical billing and coding was a better fit for her. And she was very excited because she believed that there would be a lot of jobs in the medical coding and billing field after she graduated. The school she went to also promised to help her find a job after she graduated so she was very excited to get started.
The courses
She goes on to describe the actual courses she took like anatomy, medical terms, and she learned about insurance CPT current procedural terminology, and HCPCS, healthcare common procedure coding systems. She said all of this stuff was really interesting and she enjoyed learning about it.
Things started to change
Towards the middle of the semester she came across a teacher that wanted to prepare her students for a career in medical billing and coding in an alternative way to the other teachers but unfortunately that teacher left the class and for two weeks they did not have a new teacher. When the new teacher came in they had to catch up and cramming all of that work was really hard.
Certifications for work
In her specific education journey she chose to take all of the medical billing and coding classes and get her certification within 9 months and then she decided to work on the associates degree part of her training. In her school you’ll get the medical billing and coding certification but you also get the medical administrative assistant certification (not the CNA).
She said the test wasn’t that hard and she passed with flying colors. But after she got her certifications she wanted to start looking for a job while she continued on with classes to complete her associates degree.
Job searching
Unfortunately for this student when she went to get help applying for a job 9 months after she enrolled in school her job placement office told her that the job market was a little dry right now. This caused her a lot of disappointment because in the beginning she was very optimistic about job placement and she was confident that if she took the right classes she would be able to get a job.
So she decided to take matters into her own hands and she started applying to jobs on her own. That’s when she discovered that her resume was really not a good resume. She didn’t have the right information on it so she spent a lot of time fixing her resume and applying to jobs.
Eventually through one of her own connections she was able to land a job in a hospital in the maternity unit as a clerk. And she’s been working there for a little over a year but she would still like to get a job in medical billing and coding.
Graduation
Towards the end of her time in trade school she was constantly checking in on her credits and her graduation status. She was checking her email constantly, she was checking in with her counselors and teachers and she was just trying to figure out if she was able to graduate.
Finally, she figured out that her account had a hold on it which meant there was a problem with billing. However, everything was paid for and the hold was taken off her account and she was on the list to graduate. Which was a huge relief.
Conclusions on trade school
Overall this student was very disappointed with the school and her experience there was not ideal. She claims to have had a bad and unorganized time at career school and although she got certification etc she found that it didn’t mean much when applying to jobs.
“I was cheap and I didn’t have to pay out of pocket so that’s nice. I also have an associates degree on my resume and I’m certified through NHA but most employers also want RHIT, AAPC, and HEMA certifications and why my school didn’t have those, don’t ask me.”
What is the NHA?
National Health Association
What is the RHIT?
Registered Health Information Technician
What is the AAPC?
American Academy Of Professional Coders
What is HEMA?
Health Enrollment Management Agency
However if she did not have her certifications and she did not learn crucial things like the terminology and functions of medical billing and coding, she most likely would not have gotten her job at the hospital.