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You've seen the ads: You can become a medical billing and coding specialist, plus work out of your home. It is one of the fastest growing elements in the health-care field.

Those same ads also quote some hospital association survey showing about 18% of medical billing and coding positions remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates. Even the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is used to predict medical coding and billing as among the top, fastest-growing occupations.

The fatal attraction, though, comes from the touted $19k - $40k salary range per year, plus the relatively short training period that is offered at community colleges and vocational schools all over the U.S.A. In fact, most training can be done online, a prime area for scam artists.

The premise surely seems plausible on the surface. With literally thousands of patients visiting medical service providers daily, doctors need to get paid as quickly as possible. Imagine a career that is not likely to suffer obsolescence, but the story is not that rosy.

The issue doesn't center on skills as much as WHERE the work will be done. That's right, medical billing and coding jobs are now subject to outsourcing by physicians to India. No surprise there, because we can't work that cheap in America.

Now meet Judith, a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), a Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) and now a certified medical coder. That is not enough to get her a decent-paying, medical coding job in Michigan. Why? Local doctors want their staff to do it all; front and back office to save money.

What about working as a home business? Quoting HIPPA laws, doctors often wince at releasing any work to a home-based, medical coding business. Now the hypocrisy: it doesn't prevent them from sending work out to other countries simply because it's cheaper.

Do you know how Judith really found out about this reality? It wasn't the school counselor. It was the woman sitting next to her at the community college, training for "other office work." Her billing and coding job of 30 years was eliminated at a major medical institution. The work just didn't disappear; it went to India.

Conclusion:

If that doesn't make these training ads a scam, it at least makes them suspect. So, make sure they're accredited. Nevertheless, know the reality. There are coding and billing jobs, but some employers only want to pay about $7 per hour.

So, before you dive right in, have a clear picture of the educational requirements, training avenues, earning potential, home-business funding and opportunity options; but, most of all, the potential for outsourcing.

Learn more about this author, Frank Sherosky.
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