For some healthcare practitioners a good credit history is just as important as coding credentials and experience while hiring medical coders. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission survey on – the use of credit histories as employee selection criteria – revealed that 13% of organizations conduct credit checks on all job candidates and another 47% consider credit history for select jobs.
Health Practitioners rationale for conducting credit checks:
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics number of people working in physician offices is expected to increase from 2,315,800 in 2010 to 3,073,600 in 2020 by 32.7% and in this case bad hires can prove to be highly expensive for physicians and the medical industry. In a recent survey of 294 health care hiring managers by a jobs website in 2011 revealed that 77% were affected by a bad hire- from which for 34% the bad hire cost at least $25,000 and for 18% the cost was $50,000 – due to decreased productivity, reduced morale and poor relations with patients.
Physicians vary of these problems and to reduce risk, along with the likelihood of embezzlement, fraud, violent behavior or other malpractices, feel it useful to check potential employees’ credit, looking for large debts and payment problems along with a criminal background check and relevant medical licenses.
Conducting credit checks: Employers need to follow the norms and not breach employee privacy in this case, for this reason even if certain physicians follow this option they need to assess- if it is legitimate and the valuable and important enough for the medical practice.
Effect on medical coders job prospects:
In the midst of recession job seekers may find it a bit difficult to achieve an excellent credit standing, but on the other hand there is increasing recognition that a credit report may not provide much help with no documented evidence supporting a correlation between poor credits and being a poor performer on the job.
Besides potential employers cannot obtain access to coder’s credit history without their permission yet coders may do well by being aware of their credit history and going into an interview being prepared with a good view point.
Growth opportunities with healthcare entities: In the scenario where Insurance companies and government are putting more emphasis in researching and controlling claims’ fraud, abusive practices, and medical necessity issues, has led to an increase in hiring by related healthcare entities offering medical billers and coders new growth prospects.
Medicialbillersandcoders.com equipped with experienced Billers and Coders well-versed with HIPAA, ICD-9-CM, ICD-10 –CM, CPT/HCPCS, DSM-IV, and ICPM (International Classification of Procedures in Medicine), gives coders a platform to excel in their domain. Medical coding and billing salary range is wide and only the medical biller and coder can determine their earnings and growth depending on variables they adopt- experience, training, credentials, credits, etc.