Jessica Lindelof
Kaplan University
Health Information Technician My goal is become a medical coder or a health information technician. As a medical coder I would be responsible for coding each diagnosis and procedure so that the provider or hospital can be reimbursed from the insurance companies. I would also have the ability to work for an insurance company reviewing medical claims that come in to make sure that they are coded correctly and everything code is a valid code to use. The technician aspect is more reviewing medical records, making sure that they are complete. They also could use the information in the patient’s charts to analyze several things that could be beneficial to the practice, for example, how much they are reimbursed for a procedure based on what the patients in their practice have for insurance. . I have learned that in order to be a successful Health Information Technician I need to be detail oriented. I also need to be a good listener and be able to read work related material and make sure that it is all in the right context and that the correct information is there. (Occupational Outlook Handbook) Training for an entry level position in this field would require an associate degree in Health Information Technology. Most places may also require that you are RHIT certified as well. This is not always a requirement but could be so it would be good to have. As for management positions those would require a bachelor’s degree in most cases. (Occupational Outlook Handbook) Current events that are relevant to this position would be the introduction to ICD-10 codes. This would definitely affect my field as medical coders as we deal with codes every day. We read them in the files as well as using them daily to code the procedures and diagnosis. In order to make this transition easier for the practices or hospitals it is crucial to make sure that the systems that we are using (any EHRs) are up to date and ready for the ICD-10 codes and make sure that the staff in office has adequate training so that they are ready when this rolls out. (CMS) My goal in this career is to finish my associate’s degree at Kaplan and obtain a job in a provider’s office or at a hospital as a medical coder. In order to complete this after I get my degree I plan to take the RHIT exam. This will depend on Kaplan getting credentialed so that I have that option when I am done. I would also like to continue on and get my bachelor’s degree at some point. After I get used to coding claims and what my