I started going to Savannah technical college the summer of 2002. I started working on a Diploma in Business Office Technology. Realistically this was a diploma to be some sort of office clerk. I found out that there was a certificate in medical office clerk that would only require me to take one extra class since I got all the classes I needed from "BOT".
Towards the end some friends of mine were talking to their medical terminology teacher about medical billing and how savannah tech should have a program for that. Within a 3 month period they put together some classes and called the program "medical billing specialist certificate". Most of the classes I already had so I only had to take 3 extra, no biggie.
Everything was fine, though I didn't have a great understand of what medical billing was. Our last two classes for the medical billing were medical coding and a internship. Well, we were lucky enough that 4 people quit on us and we were left with no teacher.
They recruited a past student to be our "contact". We ended up getting someone who is an auditor at one of our hospitals to teach to coding class.
We learned the first day that someone only ordered one of two books that we need to finish the coding class. So by the time we got the books financial aid refused to help because of the deadline. And still some of us (including me) did not have the second book. Our instructor was kind enough to use lots of paper each week to make us copies. Then we find out we have to spend 200 bucks on ICD-9 and CPT books.
We knew nothing ahead of time of this. And the continue education class was given their books from the library and some even had to share! Because some students could not afford the new expense our instructor kindly brought some books of her own. (She also teaches students coding on her spare time.) This woman was very wary of what Savannah tech was doing. She did her job and she was a lot of help to us confused students!
At the end of the term she asked us something very important. Did we notice that we never actually took a billing class. She said that she is trying to get certified to teach billing. Yet, on our syllabus this class is suppose to be medical billing/coding/insurance. I have come to learn that coding is a little part that sometimes billers do not need because their insurance companies they come in contact with use the same codes anyhow.
I didn't even get to our internships. The hospital we went to was sympathetic and told us that the class before us, the real guinea pigs, had it a lot worse. The hospital and even our instructor didnt understand how we could be doing a coding class and internship at the same time with no billing! And CPT and ICD-9 should be two different classes. Thank goodness we had people who helped us from this sorry excuse for a school.
You don't call something medical billing with no billing! I found out after graduating that I would never get a job with that scam of a certificate. I was told this by someone who was going to help me by letting me do my own internship with her. But because I didnt have atleast an associates degree she said no.
It's hard to go to an interview and have them ask you about pre-certs and verification when, HELLO you have no idea what that is!
I did get a job from a scam of a boss who had an at home business. She hired teens and young 20 somethings so she could pay them mimimum wage while they did really hard work getting those medical claims squared away. I quit due to the HORRIBLE working conditions. No wonder the woman has her doctor clients in other states. If ONLY they knew! And im about inclined to mail them and let them know they have people who have no education in the field handling their money!
UGH! Now I'm going into St. Leo University to take the bachelors degree in accounting. I have read a lot of comments about online colleges, but remember that even your local colleges are just as defunct as an online one! I hope St. Leo will be okay im taking it online and havent come across anything bad yet. Your comments are SO welcomed!!
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