Emergency room visits in Massachusetts have remained at high levels, even after Mass switched to a universal-type health care plan for every resident. Yesterday we spent some time talking about how Twitter is teaching us about doctor wait times and patient annoyances. If you’ll remember, the post went on to talk about Massachusetts’ universal plan and how it has affected doctor wait times for patients in that state.

It seems that a new study released by the non-profit Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. has found that not only doctor wait times have gone up, but emergency room visits have gone up as well. Massachusetts’ emergency room visits were expected to drop dramatically after the universal state plan took effect, but that hasn’t been the case. According to the study, numbers have either risen or remained exactly the same for emergency room visits.

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Anonymous — and i also hate waiting in doctor’s offices for two hours.ughh

Anonymous — Waiting in my doctor’s office long past my appt time… This patient is quickly losing her patience!!!

continue reading "What Twitter Can Teach Us About Health Insurance"

You may not believe it, but Medical Billing and Coding specialists are the most important part of keeping a hospital or medical office running. It is the medical biller specialist that keeps the money coming in to finance and keep operations running. With medical procedures becoming more complicated and varied, insurance companies are becoming more restrictive on how they reimburse for medical procedures. You can now possibly qualify to get this training free.  It is imminent that the medical biller/coder be well trained to insure medical practices are fully reimbursed for their work. It is possible to get this training for free. Yes, free education is possible and easy to obtain if you have recently lost your job and currently unemployed. You might want to take advantage of this free education/training and career opportunity.

Most doctor offices employs a medical biller. These individuals are responsible for billing the insurance companies and patients for medical procedures and doctor’s visits. These medical billers generally use medical coding on computer databases in order to keep current records and track the patient information and visits. These positions are essential and will become even more important as a national computerized system and programs are implemented. A typical medical biller will verify insurancecoverage and the pre-authorization of recording patient’s info and preparing transactions by billing and coding insurance claims as well as payment from the insurance company or the patient direct.

continue reading "Stimulus Financed Medical Billing Education"