It can be confusing when talking about medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription. People often use them interchangeably when in fact they’re all separate functions. They’re all areas of medical assisting job expertise and many people have successful careers or own work at home businesses in these fields.

All three medical professions or careers are hot healthcare information fields right now and that will not change. As more and more people need health care, there will be more and more jobs available in this market.

The nice thing about two of these fields is that you can combine them easily. In fact you may want to learn medical coding along with medical billing and be able to offer both to prospective employers or be able to offer both if you work from home or start your own business.

Medical coders and medical billers work in doctor’s offices and clinics, in hospitals or for dentists. All three fields require a background or knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy and physiology and you’ll be using special billing or coding or other software.

If you’re a medical biller you’ll be submitting claims to insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid. In some cases to the patients on behalf of clients they may have or their employers. If you choose this field you’ll need to be detail-oriented and accurate. Mistakes can cause problems both for patients and employers. Medical billing jobs usually require you to have medical billing training and certification as a Medical Billing Specialist. You’ll also need to know the rules of the HIPAA.

Medical coders provide codes to medical inpatient and outpatient procedures and services – billing public and private insurance companies. If you’re a medical coder you’ll read patient charts and assign the right code based on established codes derived from the standard classification manuals.

A medical transcriber transcribes medical records. These are usually the doctor’s notes, progress notes, etc. or those of other health professionals such as dentists. You need to be proficient in typing as you’d be doing a lot of it. Many people work from home as medical transcribers too.

So this is the difference between medical billing, medical coding and transcription. Make sure you get fully informed before you sign up for any training or enroll in schools, take online courses or programs. There are many scams to be aware of. Also there is money available from the government for both online and on-campus training. Make sure to check this out too to save yourself a lot of money.