From classroom to career: Transitioning as a new medical billing and coding graduate

You’ve completed or are on your way to finishing your medical billing and coding education. Now what? Putting what you’ve learned into practice and getting a job isn’t always so simple for new graduates, especially if you encounter the age-old problem of jobs all wanting candidates that already have experience.   

If you’re wondering where to begin, consider some of these tips to help smooth the transition from pupil to professional.

Getting experience: Internships, job shadowing and more  

Olga Lyubar, Department Head for Health Information Management and Medical Billing and Coding at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, said that healthcare experience for new graduates is a must. After all, even most entry-level positions want candidates to have at least a year or two to qualify.  

“The hardest scenario is if they don’t have any experience, because you’re coming in with an empty resume and especially if that experience is not in healthcare. If you have some kind of experience in healthcare, it could be working as a caregiver, and it’s still better than none at all,” Lyubar said.  

The fact of the matter is many medical billing and coding students are working adults that already have some experience, so this may not be as high of a priority for them. But if you’re younger or earlier in your career, it’s important to get some experience under your belt as soon as possible.  

“The other thing that’s helped our students a lot is internships. Because of that experience, students can then claim, ‘I had an internship that allowed me to practice my skills,’” Lyubar said. “If the program has internships, those are a big kickstart [to students’ careers], and a lot of our students actually do get hired through our internships.” If your program connects students with internships or externships, then you should definitely take advantage and participate in one.  

Another option to take matters into your own hands is to job shadow someone who currently works in the field of medical billing and coding. This is an experiential learning opportunity where you watch or “shadow” someone for a day to better understand what they do and what their job is really like on a daily basis. Initiating a job shadow can be as simple as writing a formal request to a healthcare facility to see if a medical biller or coder would be willing to be shadowed for a day. Better yet, if you know someone who works in the field or can connect you with someone who does, you should tap into those personal connections.

Look into school resources

Some companies and organizations partner with schools to try and hire new graduates. One way they might do this, for example, is disseminate job listings to all students in a particular program or department. These might be posted physically in a career center or distributed via email. Check with your program adviser to see if your school does anything like this, and make sure you sign up for those email alerts or know where you can find any job postings.  

On that note, don’t forget about your school’s career center. These offices, which can usually be accessed both physically and online, have many resources designed to help their students get hired. Often this includes things like one-on-one career counseling, resume writing workshops and more.  

Get certified

Most professional certifications for medical billers and coders are designed for those who already have some experience in the field, but there are some available through the AAPC (formerly known as the American Academy of Professional Coders) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) for early-career professionals.  

“I would say what the students should do as soon as they graduate from any medical billing and coding program is take a national certification. That would be either the Certified Coding Associate (CCA), Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) or the Certified Professional Coder (CPC). That shows that they’re really dedicated and they want to be working in a coding field. It is a general [certification], so it’s not a specialty one, and so that allows them into most positions,” Lyubar said. “If a student wants to get hired more quickly into a billing or a coding position, then they need to get those certifications.” 

For billers specifically, the Certified Professional Biller (CPB) certification from the AAPC is a general certification that they should look into early on. 

Apply to jobs you may not qualify for

As you start scouring job postings online, chances are you’re going to come across a lot of medical billing and coding jobs that want applicants who already have experience. This can be a frustrating experience when you’re just starting out and trying to get your foot in the door.  

But remember this—job listings often describe the most perfect candidate for the job, not necessarily the one they might actually be willing to hire. In other words, they may overestimate the qualifications necessary for a position. Don’t shy away from applying to jobs where you don’t meet every single one of the listed qualifications.  

If the job scope truly seems out of your depth, then maybe hold off on applying. Otherwise, there’s usually no harm in throwing your hat into the ring. The worst that can happen is they decline your application.  

Start somewhere else if needed

If you’re still struggling to land the billing or coding job you want, you can always try and get some other experience first and then pivot later on.  

“It is easier, we find, to get into a billing position than a coding position because of how difficult coding can be and how much they have to produce in a short amount of time,” Lyubar said. “So if a student really wants to get into coding in the future, start out at a billing position and then work your way to the coding department. We also say get your foot in the door into entry-level positions, so a lot of our students will get into patient access, which is kind of like the front office personnel. They’ll be there for a year, and then they move into those different areas.”