What is a good book for medical billing & coding?

Are you a Medical billing & coding specialist? I have so many questions!?

• I am looking into getting training for medical billing / coding. medicalbillingcourse.com claims one does not need to train in coding to do billing. That they are completely different. Some have you learn medical terminology and anatomy, some don't. The one thing no one talks about is what the job is like day in and day out... what is the real work like? Do you sit and look up codes in stacks of books? How much contact with the physicians do you have? Do you work with billing people? Do you call the insurance companies and get put on hold forever? Do you have to deal with irrate customers? How much computer work is there? Is there a certain program coders use and is it a nightmere in DOS and needs to be updated to Windows? What is the real difference between a biller and a coder? Do you really have to know both? Please do not just post a website for an online school. Thanks.

• Answer:

  A biller deals at the front office with the patients directly, you need excellent communication skills to deal with people who are more often than not unhappy with the charges and rebates their health fund gives them. You process accounts, and health fund claims and take payments. Most insurance claims are done electronically at point of service. A coder has to put the treatment/procedure into code and send the data to the relevant department, medicare etc. You work independently and have no dealings with the general public. I worked in a medical centre, we had a small day hospital. I had a huge manual to help with the hospital coding. Everything had to be accurate. The data had to to sent directly to medicare. A coder is totally different to a biller in my experience.