My AHDPGTM Success Story

Again, thank you for sharing your success story with us.  It just tickled us so that we were able to be a part of your journey.  Here is Amber’s Story…

My AHDPGTM Success Story

I have always known that the healthcare industry was where I belonged, particularly in medical transcription, so the decision to pursue this as my career was an easy one that I was so excited about!  I am also a mother, which weighed heavy on my decision, as I wanted the flexibility to be home to raise my children while having a career for myself.  I definitely found a win-win for my family and myself and could not be happier with my decision!

When it came to choosing a school, I knew that finding an accredited school through AHDI was top priority.  I did hours and hours of research, looking at curriculum, flexibility, cost and payment plans as well as opportunities post graduation, and AHDPGTM was the best option hands down.  From the first phone call, I knew that they wanted me to succeed.  Their curriculum is top-notch.  The instructors are so very helpful and were there for me every step of the way!  All of the instructors have worked in the field for many years and are very knowledgeable.  They also offer webinars and discussion forums to make you feel like you are part of a “team.”  The whole program is focused on preparing you to become a successful MT upon graduation.  The practicum gives you the “hands-on” experience working with real physicians and medical documents.

Upon successfully graduating from AHDPGTM, you will have the opportunity to become an extern with AHDPGTM through the wonderful “paid” externship program.  This is such a wonderful opportunity to gain experience working on real accounts, typing for many different physicians, and transcribing many types of medical reports.  I cannot even begin to tell you how valuable this externship was for me and how with this on-the-job experience I was asked to become part of the AHDPGTM “family” as an employee!

Medical transcription has given me the freedom to have a career and take care of my family. I am able to work in the healthcare industry and be a part of an amazing group of professionals.  I am constantly learning new terms, procedures, work types, and I love that each day is met with a new set of fun challenges and research!  I really LOVE my job!

I am so happy that I made the decision to pursue this as my career and I am even happier that I chose to do it through AHDPGTM!   Good luck on your journey on becoming a medical transcriptionist!

Amber N., Grandville, MI.

Start another career at 50? You’ve GOT to be kidding!!!

Here is another testimonial and wonderful story that really caught our attention.  We are honored to be so well thought of and wanted to share with you. Here is Ruth’s story….

ME??? Start another career at 50? You’ve GOT to be kidding!!!

But I just couldn’t get the idea out of my head.  I have always been fascinated by the medical field but never wanted to be a nurse or a doctor.  I had settled into another field that was fun, helped pay the bills and was satisfying.  Then I became a grandma! And suddenly, I didn’t want to leave my home every morning just in case I would have an opportunity to visit with my children and grandchildren.  None of them live close so when they did come home, I wanted to be able to be around.  Kind of a crazy reason to change careers, but I figured that if I found something to do from home, it would certainly get me closer to being able to be around when they did come home – kind of allow me more flexibility.  So I started to research the big world of Medical Transcription – or now, Medical Language Specialists!

My online research led me to quite a few places but none really seemed to offer wide opportunities in quite the same way as TRSi, now known as AHDPGTM.  I decided one evening, after talking with my husband, to give their online screening assessment a try.  It seemed relatively easy – nothing too difficult to manage.  I received a contact phone call back from TRSi in quite short order and they answered a lot of questions that were weighing on me.  I was mainly drawn by the completeness of their curriculum – they cover every major area of the medical field giving an advantage in your marketability to be able to transcribe a variety of report types.  I would learn later that the curriculum would prepare me well to handle a variety of report types and allow me an advantage when looking for work.  In no time at all, I had a packet in the mail and had made my decision to begin the on-line training.

Then the work really began! Because I still was working full time, I was working in the evenings to do my classwork and would often feel just a bit overwhelmed.  But then, my instructor would encourage me and give me the incentive to keep going.  After 15 long months (I did get a 3-month extension due to some extended family situations) I was done! I had done better than I thought I would do and was looking forward to sending out a resume and getting started.  But, even though my training was excellent, it didn’t automatically get me a job.  I sent out a few resumes but because places were ‘downsizing’ I found myself at a dead end.  I still had my full-time job and kept at it and wondered what I would do with my training.

About a year after I had completed my training, I was contacted by AHDPGTM and asked if I was interested in their Externship program.  I was given an opportunity to take the test to see if I qualified, and once I got over the ‘jitters’ of taking more tests (at 50+, tests aren’t so easy anymore!), I was able to relax and work through the test, meeting the criteria to join the externship program.

The externship program was an incredible experience.  It helped that I had great mentors working with me, but it was so different to actually be transcribing an actual report instead of a ‘pseudo-report’.  I had my days when I wondered if I would ever get through a report where the doctor talked like he was being chased by a mad bull, or one that sounded like Count Dracula (on Halloween night no less, all alone in my house that creaks and groans!).  I would despair at ever getting the spelling right on a medicine or spending time pouring through my dictionary to try and find a term that the doctor was dictating.  But in the end, with the help and encouragement of my supervisor, I was able to complete the 90 days of the externship program.

I took the step of applying to become full-time in March 2011 and was accepted as part of the AHDPGTM family.  I am privileged to work for a great company who has given me the opportunity to ‘start over’ at 50+ years of age.  I love being able to walk to my office at home to work, and yes, I even have been able to enjoy my grandchildren when they come to visit – much better than having to walk out the front door every morning.

I have learned so very much and have so very much more to learn but AHDPGTM has given me the chance to develop a second career, one that I know I can enjoy for a long time if I continue to apply myself and continue to learn.

Ruth J., MLS, Roseburg, Oregon

AHDPG Success Story Winner!

Congrats to Nicole S. for winning our contest.  It was wonderful to read each and every one of the entries.  Love the diversities which bring each of us to the medical transcription field.  One commonality amongst most of the testimonies is the importance of family.  It warms our heart to see what a caring and dedicated group we have here.  That same sense of caring and dedication shows in our MTs’ work ethic too.  At AHDPGTM, we hold the highest of expectations because we know you all can and do consistently rise to that level of expectation.

Below is Nicole’s letter.  Thank you for sharing. 

My journey to become a medical transcriptionist, although I did not know it at the time, started when I was younger.  Growing up, I had always had a fascination with the medical field. A part of me always wanted to work in that field, but I just did not know in which one.  I went on to work various other jobs, never completely happy in what I was doing.  It was not until years later that, thanks to a family friend, I Ianded a job as a radiology clerk in a hospital, as well as the hospital’s outside clinics. I really enjoyed my job and my likeness of the medical field grew. I did that for awhile but had to leave my job and move away.  I decided that I was going to go back to school and become a radiology technician.  Unfortunately, that did not work out as I had hoped. Time went by and we started a family.  Well, if you have kids, you know how that goes. Going to school was no longer a priority as our kids became the center of our lives. During that time, I came across some information about medical transcription and thought that would be a great thing to do.   The more I looked into it, the more I felt it would be perfect for me to do.  Not only was this a job in the medical field, but it would allow me to be home with my kids.  Being a military family, we move about every 3 years and finding a job everywhere you go is not easy.  Being a medical transcriptionist would allow me to keep my job every time we move.  So, my research began once again and I narrowed my choice down to 2 schools, AHDPGTM being one of those schools.  I decided to go with AHDPGTM because their curriculum seemed more in depth than the other school, the fact that they have an externship program, and they have a military spouse program that worked with our CAA here on base.

Once I started the school, I became completely overwhelmed with trying to learn a new career while still taking care of my family and other things.  I had been out of school for so long and was so undisciplined to do school work.  It took me some time to get used to being back in school and to learn a new career.  To be honest, I wanted to quit, but I am not a quitter!   My husband will also be retiring from the Marine Corps in a few years and I needed to go back to work.  So, I buckled down, got on a schedule, and put everything I had into making this work. It was not easy, but I stuck it out.  No matter how hard I thought learning all the different fields were, this is still fascinated me and I knew this is what I was supposed to be doing.  The webinars were a great thing and our student post page was a big help too as it was a great way to get in touch with other students who too felt the same way. The instructors, of course, were also helpful.

Well, graduation day finally came and I was so proud of myself. So much, in fact, that I rewarded myself by enrolling in the RMT Prep Course, and as if that was not enough, I continued on to the Speech Recognition program, which I thought was pretty neat.  I then made it into the externship program, which has helped me grow so much.  I was nervous at first because it was so new to me.  I did not want to mess up. My QA was there to help me every step of the way, and when I came off of 100% QA it was very liberating.  I had come so far and was proud of myself.   When the opportunity presented for me to become an employee, I jumped on it.  I had grown so much during my externship. I like my job. It is never boring. I am constantly learning something new.  I feel I have the perfect job. I get to be home with my little one and am done with work by the time my older kids get home from school.  Also, when my husband comes home and says we’re PCSing, I won’t be worried about finding a new job because I can take my job with me.

– Nicole S.- MLS, California

 

Speech Recognition Editing

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What is it and why do I care anyway? Speech Recognition Editing the activity in which a Medical Language Specialist (MLS) reviews and corrects medical documents that have been dictated then converted by automatic speech recognition software to text. The medical transcription industry needs MTs with this particular knowledge to work with speech recognition. If there are not enough people trained to do Speech Recognition Editing, the industry is going to end up letting it go without an editor. This is going create a lot of mistakes in the transcribed medical reports, something that the medical profession cannot have.  Most doctors require no less than 98% accuracy from their MTs which is another reason the industry needs qualified Speech Recognition Editors.

Speech recognition is a great addition to your resume and is a skill that will help you remain competitive and stay employed in spite of economic changes and technological advances in healthcare documentation.

ICD-9 CD versus ICD10

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Wondering about a career in the health care field as a biller or coder? Wondering why the programs you are looking to join are still teaching ICD-9 when ICD10 is soon being implemented? To find the answer to this question read on. ICD-9 will be in effect until September 30, 2013 as ICD10 will be going into effect on October 1, 2013 but it is not that simple.

ICD-9 will still be referenced for up to one year after the ICD10 implementation. From October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014 coders and billers will be referencing both ICD-9 an ICD10 for this duration of time. The reason for this double coverage is the need for working rejected and denied claims. Claims can be submitted for up to one year after the service date and the adjudication of these claims will need the knowledge of ICD-9.

This is the reason for having to learn ICD-9 in any coding/billing program that you are looking into and this process will carry through to the implementation date of ICD10. Within the next year programs will start to offer more ICD10 instruction but ICD-9 will still need to be instructed for your knowledge base in the working environment. So as you are shopping around for a billing and coding program, be aware of what you will need to be successful from a knowledge base point of view.

Important Questions to Ask an Online Training Program

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  1. How much time will I need to invest to get through the program? You will want to how long the course takes (9 months, a year?) and how many hours you should expect to put in each week to make sure you finish on time. There is nothing worse than getting behind in anonline program. Once you are behind, catching up is hard to do.
  2. What are the admission requirements for this program? Do you need a high school diploma? Most of the time online schools will have you complete an entrance exam before you are allowed to take the program you are interested in.
  3. What type of materials will you receive in with your course? Will
    I have to buy any additional materials with your course? Does it cover the cost of shipping?      Some schools will cover the costs of materials with tuition and others will not. It is important to know that up front that way you know what kind of investment you are looking at. If the school does not cover shipping, you will want to make sure and ask how much extra that will be.
  4. Are the instructor’s experts in the field they are teaching? This is an extremely important question! You want to make sure you are paying for the proper education taught by people who are trained and who are experts in their field. Simple thought but so many times we do not look into this.
  5. What kind of interaction can I expect from the instructor of the
    program?     You will want to find out the office hours of your instructor and
    how you are allowed to contact them i.e. email, phone calls, instant messenger.
  6. Is there a defined grading scale?
    You do not want to come up short when it is time to graduate. Most schools have a clearly defined grading scale right on their website. If not, ask for one. It
    never hurts to have a clear understanding of what is expected of you.
  7. What system requirements do I need to have in order to take an
    online course?     This will be specific to whatever program you are taking. You need to make sure what the requirements are so in case you need to buy something extra, you can budget for that and get it before your class starts.
  8. Does your school have a withdrawal and refund policy? Make
    sure you understand the schools withdrawal and refund policy before signing on the dotted line. Make sure it is clearly defined on the paperwork.
  9. How does this program compare to other online programs out
    there?     I strongly suggest you make a list of schools you are comparing.
    Find the features that important for you to have in an online training program.
    Get all your questions answered and do your research. Remember, YOU will make the final decision on which program you will take so make sure it the right fit for your life.

               An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

~Author unknown

Why Medical Billing and Coding Education?

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In today’s day and age within the medical profession policies and procedures change on a daily basis. Providers are also having to work much harder today than they had to 5 years ago. Why you ask? Each year a provider’s percent of reimbursement for services provided is determined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (also known as CMS).

There is currently a proposal made by the CMS to decrease physician’s reimbursement 29.5% for the 2012 calendar year. This decrease in income is very sizeable and providers are going to have to rely on their coding and billing staff to be able to properly collect funds for services/procedures provided on the first submission of claims.

This is why a person needs to have an understanding of billing and coding in the medical profession. Providers do not have the luxuary or time to train staff on site to keep funds coming into their practices. Education is knowledge and a great way to secure a billing/coding position in the medical environment.

Doctors or Data Entry Clerks?

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Upon visiting this year’s American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) conference in Salt Lake City, Utah I am bewildered at the path our country is taking in the name of “improving” healthcare.

Do we really want/need our physicians entering data in a computer? Is this what we believe “quality” healthcare is?

If so, let me get this straight…what we are saying is after four years of undergraduate schooling and four years of medical school, with three to eight years of internships and residency (depending on the area of specialty); so in total, after spending between 11 and 16 years of training, what we want our highly trained (and highly compensated) physicians doing is spending 40 to 60% of their time entering data in a computer.

Are we nuts?

Where is the American Medical Association? Where are the physicians themselves? Where is the leadership of our healthcare system? Don’t they understand that paying physicians hundreds of thousands of dollars to be data entry clerks is not sustainable?

I am astonished, with the number of smart people we have in this country, that this has gotten this far.

What is even more astonishing is the business case some technology companies are using (and some healthcare leaders are buying) that says, “you can justify spending millions of dollars on their technology by transferring the data entry responsibility from today’s medical language specialists, medical billers, medical coders, medical scribes and other allied health professionals and place this responsibility on the shoulders of the physicians, nurses and other care providers.”

This makes all the sense in the world…let’s get a physician earning $150 per hour to do the job that one of these other allied health professionals can do for $20 – $40 per hour – all the while there is a well known shortage of doctors and nurses and our population is aging and requiring more and more services.

Someone please help me understand how this is improving the efficiency of our healthcare system?  Even at a 7.5:1 ratio ($150/$20) asking a physician to spend as little as 36 minutes per day entering data is a money losing and thereby inefficient proposition.

Like most other highly trained and highly compensated individuals, physicians should have access to quality data/information to assist them in delivering their services – we should not require them to be entering the data. In fact, we should be mandating that they don’t!

This would be the same as asking the CEO of Macy’s or Walmart to spend 40-60% of his or her time behind the cash register or asking the CEO of Exxon/Mobil to spend 40-60% of his or her time pumping gas or asking Tom Brady to work the concession stand at half-time of the New England Patriots game. Ridiculous!

140,000 Ways to Code What Ails You

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This article was published by News@Northeastern and can be accessed here: http://www.northeastern.edu/news/stories/2011/09/medicalbilling.html

September 26, 2011

Beginning on Oct. 1, 2013, a new federally mandated medical billing system would require doctors to use a bank of more than 140,000 alphanumeric codes to describe injuries and medical services in bills sent to insurers. We asked Dan Feinberg, the director of the health informatics program — a joint program in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences and the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University — to explain how the new coding system will affect health- care delivery.

How will the new medical-billing system change the way physicians, health insurers and information specialists deal with patients and patient data?

The new system — which is formally called the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) — changes how data is represented, but it doesn’t really change the data that is collected. ICD-10 will be able to represent that data in a way that computers can understand. There is research on finding a way for computers to understand free text that doctors put into their notes, but a formalized coding system is far better for computer interpretation.

Under the new system, your provider and your insurance company will know that you were bitten by a rat and not by a dog. If we discover that there is an outbreak of a disease being spread by rats, you might get a letter or a phone call. That will be new. It also works the other way. By having this detailed data in a structured format, we’ll be able to find patterns of problems that occur after rat bites and discover that, for example, outbreaks of a flu-like illness occurred in people who were bitten by rats.

What are health-care information specialists doing to prepare for the billing code changes?

Systems are being upgraded at a time when we are already making a push toward electronic records. Not everyone will make it in time, but people are still trying to maintain a sense of urgency. Europe has been running on a slightly different version of the U.S. version of ICD-10 for quite a while, so this feels more like finally catching up than blazing a new trail.

Under the new system, suffering an injury in a chicken coop, walking into a lamppost and being struck by a turtle will all be describable by code. How can this type of information help health-care providers deliver higher-quality care to patients? What else may this information be used for?

We will be much better at detecting outbreaks, and we will be much better at identifying how to keep people healthy. A broken arm, an animal bite and severe flu may not seem to go together until we find out that they are all chicken-related, so the computer can flag you for a phone call from a nurse with special training in chicken-handling education. In reality, chicken-related injuries are not overwhelming the health-care system, and we don’t train nurses specifically to address this problem. Having said that, the finer data in ICD-10 will allow us to identify patients with problems and pair them with nurses who can address them.

People may laugh at codes for poor personal hygiene, but these are very significant red flags for mental health issues that will benefit from early intervention. Whatever the information is, having it in a structured format vastly improves our ability to look for patterns in the data.

For more information, please contact Jason Kornwitz at 617-373-5729 or at [email protected].

American Healthcare Documentation Professionals Group Named as a 2012 Military Friendly School

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American Healthcare Documentation Professionals Group, the nation’s leader in healthcare documentation training and services, has been recognized as a Military Friendly School by G.I. Jobs, a premier magazine for military personnel transitioning into civilian life. The 2012 Military Friendly Schools list honors the top 20 percent of colleges, universities and vocational schools that are doing the most to embrace America’s military service members, veterans and military dependents as students.

We are very pleased to be designated as a military friendly school for the third year in row,” said Peter Reilly, AHDPGTM CEO. “We’re truly grateful for the sacrifices made by the men and women of the military and their families, and we work hard to help those who secure our freedoms achieve their educational goals and dreams.” We’re committed to helping them start new civilian careers by offering quality online training with generous military discounts, a number of military funding programs, dedicated student support, and a variety of other resources.”

American Healthcare Documentation Professionals Group is an online school, offering training programs that prepare students for careers in medical transcription, medical billing and coding and clinical information management (medical scribe). The courses incorporate input from industry experts, employers, and associations to ensure that students gain the knowledge and skills employers seek. Because the American Healthcare Documentation Professionals Group training is offered entirely online, it is also completely portable and allows students to study at a pace and on a schedule that fits each individual’s unique lifestyle.

In addition, if you are a spouse of an active duty service member you may be eligible for no-cost education through the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Military Career Advancement Account (MyCAA) program. The program provides eligible spouses with up to $4,000 in financial assistance towards their education. AHDPGTM participates in the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Military Career Advancement Account (MyCAA) program and is one reason AHDPGTM has been named as a 2012 Military Friendly School for the third year in row.

The 2012 list of Military Friendly Schools was compiled through extensive research and a data-driven survey of more than 8,000 schools nationwide conducted by G.I. Jobs magazine. Methodology, criteria and weighting for the list were developed with the assistance of an Academic Advisory Board (AAB) consisting of educators from schools across the country.

For more information on American Healthcare Documentation Professionals Group’s inclusion on the 2012 Military Friendly Schools list, visit http://www.militaryfriendlyschools.com/search/profile.aspx?id=452481 or click here to contact us.