What is the difference between a medical coding specialist and a medical coding prefessional?
Asked by anjoek5859
Which certification should I go with and why? Would appreciate any info from someone that has one of these certifications and did it help you to get hired where you could get some medical coding experience.

Best Answer:
There is no difference, and I also agree with the poster above me, It is very difficult to get a coding job. Employers require experience. It took me 2.5 years working as a medical receptionist doing minimal coding to finally move up to a full time coding position at a hospital. As far as outsourcing, that isn't supposed to be a huge problem, due to HIPPA laws, some ompanies won't want to outsource the patient record. But then again, you never know for sure.
medical coder.
Answered by Poof

I'm not sure that there is a difference among the two, however, there actually aren't supposed to be too many jobs for the medical coder (or medical biller or med assistant) despite what those private $$ tech schools say. Most coders need a couple years experience doing coding tasks and have completed an accredited program to possibly get a job. (With medical billing, a lot of companies are outsourcing to Asia/India which is what happened to my cousin who was laid off from her med billing job of five years.) If still interested in med coding, please only consider the more affordable county vo-tech school or community college as long as it's accredited within industry.
Answered by jannsody

As far as I know, there is no regular "medical coding" profession. This type of job falls under health records technician training or the health records administrator position. You will need to take training to become either a records administrator, or a records technician. Also with a lot of hospital jobs, or with a lot of jobs in general within this field, they require that you're registered with their college, or with their association in order to be able to work in the field. With the registration, I think that you need to have so many hours before you will even be able to apply for registration, so hence, that is why a lot of hospitals, and other organizations need you to have experience in the field.
Answered by mtwaites