Medical Billing and Coding Class

by Linda
(Maine, USA)

I was interested in getting a job in Medical Billing and Coding, so after looking at a variety of choices, signed up for an online course with a nationally recognized Career School. I am very disappointed with the results, and would recommend people who want to do medical billing NOT BOTHER.

The course claimed that in the year it would take to complete, I would be fully able to do medical billing either in a doctor office setting, or perhaps even from my own home business. For the $900 I spent, I got books, access to online components, and supposedly "career placement assistance".

Once I got the materials at home, it did not seem to be exactly what was described. Although I did get some medical billing and coding information, a lot of the lessons seemed more to fit the duties of an administrative assistant--for example, I did three Research Papers, lessons on how to type a letter, and other things that didn't seem to directly apply to medical billing.

In addition, though the research papers were assigned, I got little to no explanation about how I was to complete these assignments. I struggled to make sense of what was expected, but there was little personalized help available. I did get handwritten grades on these from the instructors, but they were full of spelling errors and bad grammar--this made me question how good the instructors really were.

As for the "Career Placement Assistance", there was none to speak of. I never got help with my resume or any solid job leads. They gave me a list of job websites to look at, and that was about it. I could have found many of those sites on my own.

When I was finished with the course, I received a "diploma", but not medical billing and coding certification--for this reason, I have been unsuccessful in finding even an entry level job. Employers don't seem to consider that diploma worth much of anything, so I have concluded that this course was largely a waste of a year of my time, and almost a thousand dollars.

If I had it to do over again, I would make sure the course gave me actual certification at the end, and that I found out exactly what the "Career Placement Assistance" would be. And I should have asked to speak with some people who had completed the course to see if it was really what I thought it would be.