Training a Medical Biller

Training to become a medical biller can be overwhelming. Whether you are an employer who needs to train employees or you are looking to become a medical biller, good training is crucial. When we have a new employee the training process is intense. It is important that the new employee learn how we do things, and become as self-sufficient as possible as quickly as possible.

Of course in the beginning mistakes are going to be made. We start out by having an experienced biller sit directly with the new employee and have the new employee watch what the experienced biller is doing while taking notes. The whole time, the experienced biller is explaining step by step what they are doing, why they are doing it, how they accomplish it, and every other detail that the new employee may need to know. They are also explaining our practice management system, our filing system, our system of receiving information, and how we communicate with our providers. There is so much to show them.

Once we feel that they have observed enough, the experienced biller switches places with the new person and gives them a chance to try things out for themselves. The amount of time that a new person watches before they are ready to try it varies greatly depending on their previous experience and how quick of a learner they are. Once they switch places the experienced worker watches every keystroke to make sure they truly understand. Many times they give verbal instructions the whole time until they are sure the new person has grasped the task.

Once they are able to observe without having to give verbal assistance they will allow the new worker to complete a task and then check it over after they are done. This is still time consuming as it's being done twice basically. But we feel it is necessary in order to be sure the new person is doing things correctly. The experienced worker will check over each item and bring any mistakes back to the new person and show them what they've done incorrectly. We find this is a great tool. Learning from visually looking at your mistakes is the best experience you can give someone.

As you can see the training process (at least in our office) is very intense and very disruptive to normal work flow. It takes two people to do the job of less than one really. The process is slow but if you want the person to be effective you need to take the time in the beginning to make sure they are trained properly. When we bring on a new person it is usually several months before they are up to speed and the person involved in their training can go back to their regular duties.

If you want your employees to be good quality employees then you need to take the time to train them. You can't expect them to give you excellent quality if you haven't taught them how to do that. We find that mistakes take a lot more time to correct on the back end than they do to avoid them up front. If you take the time to properly train the person, it will pay off in the end.