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Medical Billing and Coding Degrees
By Ashley Boyce, allied health world staff writer
Published: January 13th, 2010
What can I expect from a medical billing degree or medical coding degree program?
Medical billing and coding degree programs vary only slightly in what they cover with some providing classes that help develop office skills like keyboarding for students who haven’t yet mastered these skills. For most medical billing degree and medical coding degree programs, however, keyboarding skills are a prerequisite. Most comprehensive medical billing and coding degree programs would include the following courses:
Fundamentals of Data Processing would introduce students to basic computer skills and the use of common programs like MS Word, spreadsheets, and file management programs. This would include the development of keyboarding skills for the schools that don’t require it for entrance into their program.
Anatomy and Physiology classes involve learning the major body systems including the names of organs and their function as well as an introduction to diagnostic testing used to identify issues related to 
organ function.
Medical Terminology classes teach definitions of medical vocabulary. This involves learning the component parts of medical terms and combinations of suffixes and prefixes unique to medicine as it pertains to pathology of the nine body systems.
Health Care Delivery Systems classes teach the specifics of the different institutions of health care and how they work together. These classes would provide an understanding of corporate organization and administration.
Regulatory Agencies in Health Care is a course designed to introduce students to the various medical licensing and regulatory agencies and their respective purposes. This class helps provide an understanding of how these agencies’ policies impact health care.
Reimbursement in Health Care classes provide an understanding of the various methods of submitting and processing claims for financial reimbursement through the major health care insurers including Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Workers’ Compensation, Tricare and Disability Compensation. This is specific to medical billing degree programs and would not be covered extensively in a medical coding degree program.
Medical Office Procedures covers the various ways in which health information is processed within a medical office. This would include electronic data interchange, booking appointments, entering patient information, tracing delinquent claims, and the appeals process.
Health Care Data/Structure explains the structure of health records and other resources so students would be able to identify where certain patient information can be found. This class would also cover the ethics and legalities involved in handling medical records.
Disease Process/Pharmacology covers disease pathology as well as diagnosis and medicinal and pharmaceutical treatment.
Basic and Intermediate ICD-9-CM Coding class teaches the most commonly used international medical classification system. International Classification of Diseases is abbreviated as (ICD). This class would teach the basics of this classification system and provide practical experience with the use of an encoder.
Intermediate Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Coding classes also have students working with encoders to practice more complex procedural coding including ambulatory and outpatient services.
Basic Ambulatory Care Coding classes introduce students to the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS), another common classification system used for billing physician services, outpatient care, emergency care, and ambulance service with a focus on properly documenting evaluation and management performed by EMTs and ER techs.
Health Care Insurance Processing teaches the integration and application of the previous learned coding principals, health care reimbursement, and regulatory standards to process claims in accordance with law and medical ethics.