Stories of Holiday Good Will

Sometimes this world can seem downright cruel.  All year long, the news is dominated by story after story of people doing horrible things each unto the other.  From large scale wars and crimes against humanity to the exploitation of the weak, old and infirm, there is much wickedness in these times.  It can almost make one throw their hands into the air and decide, disgustedly, to simply not care any more. But then, each December, as the holiday season really gets into swing, it seems as though people stop to think a bit more about how to exercise good will and increased kindness toward their fellow man.  Take for example this heartwarming story here. Then consider the man in Colorado who returned an unmarked casino envelope containing $10,000 in cash he found in the airport. Whether these stories exist because of a jaded media’s attempt to sow the illusion of good will toward men to capitalize on the holidays or because people truly do soften their hearts at the holidays, the net effect is to restore a bit of faith in humanity.  This is sorely needed as one’s faith in humanity, these days, is rightly shaken on a regular enough basis that it hardly shocks us anymore. This holiday season, remember to love your fellow travelers in this life and try to treat all you encounter with the kindness you’d wish to be treated with.

Top 10 Sites for Finding Medical Billing and Coding Jobs

Top 10 Medical Billing and Coding JobsHere is a list of the top ten sites aggregating job opportunities in medical billing and coding.  The list is courtesy of www.billingandcoding.com which has a lot of pertinent resources for those in possession of a certificate in medical billing and coding.
  1. AAPC: Visit this web site, which specializes in the business side of health care, including medical billing. Job openings and more resources for medical billers.
  2. All Things Medical Billing: Learn more about your career options, and look for job openings.
  3. Medical Billing Jobs and Career: Look for different medical billing job opportunities. Find our more about where you can work as a medical biller.
  4. Medical Billing Jobs: JobCircle offers medical billing jobs by state. A helpful resource for the intrepid job seeker.
  5. Medical Billing Work at Home: Find different opportunities for medical billers who want to work from home. Good job prospects.
  6. Medical Billing and Coding: Different job openings, as well as career information and help. A great place to start.
  7. American Medical Billing Association: Visit this web site for career help and information, as well as information on starting your own business and finding medical billing jobs.
  8. Medical Billing Specialist: Great resource for finding jobs related to medical billing. Job and career site.
  9. All Medical Billing Jobs: Search engine for medical billing jobs. Find what you’re looking for with this helpful tool.
  10. Medical Billing at Home: A look at how you can become a medical biller from your home.

Most Ridiculous Fast Food of 2011

I wait for this list every year.  We always cover “over the top” fast food creations on this blog for some reason.  Well this year’s list of the craziest or most wildly unhealthy food items has dropped.  Will someone puhLEEZE tell me how I missed the Doritos Taco Bell taco?  OMG!  That looks EPIC!  Let’s thank America’s purveyors of fast food for their assistance in providing customers for doctors and the medical billers they employ!   Enjoy the madness.

A New Beginning Rises out of Lower Manhattan

The shadows of the Twin Towers Stretch Over Lower Manhattan

Although some of you may be studying online from places very far away from New York, the Allen School ground campuses and administrative offices are all located in the greater New York City metro area.  As such, we all have a local connection to the events of 9/11.  This blogger traveled from his home about an hour upstate into Manhattan over the last weekend to attend a birthday party and noticed, for the first time, the looming superstructure of the new Freedom Tower rising up in the gaping hole left in the skyline of lower Manhattan by the fallen World Trade Center towers.  It was both a visceral shock and an emotional moment.  It felt as though something that had long been missing, something stolen, had been returned to city and my view. So I was pretty jazzed to see this story on the cool-beans website, Gizmodo.com. Have a look at the killer view the new tower will sport.  Can’t wait until it opens so I can go to the top and look down.

Get Your Resume Past the Electronic Screeners

With so many people looking for jobs in this tough economy, hiring authorities are getting buried under mountains of resumes.  Many have turned to automation software to scan and screen paper resumes and sort out the relevant ones from the rest.  As a result, most resumes aren’t reviewed by a human being until they have been selected by the algorithm of a sophisticated “applicant tracking system” software.  Wanna know how to game that system and make sure that your resume is actually viewed by the hiring manager?  I BET you do.  Let me hook you up with some pretty savvy, tech-based, Human Resources secret knowledge.  Visit this awesome article from the cool nerds over at Lifehacker.com.  It tells you the whole story on how to use keywords and other techniques for getting past the robot screener.

Don’t Believe the Hype – 10 Job Hunt Myths

We’ve all heard them.  Seemingly solid tips on how to land the gig of your dreams.  “Don’t send your resume out during the holiday season because HR is slackened off at the holidays.  Wait ’til January and start your hunt again in earnest.” Or my favorite, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!” Well, it would seem this advice is nothing more than well-worn hogwash.  According to an article published in US News and World Report, the holiday season is among the best times of the year to get hired and it most definitely does matter what you know.  Should your resume be no longer than one page?  Should you price yourself lower than the position typically pays in order to beat out competition?  Does a cover letter really matter?  All these answers and more in this “10 Myths About Job Searching” article. There!  Now, don’t say I never gave you anything for Christmas!

Boost Concentration and Memory

Being an Online Student at Allen School Online (or really being a student of medical billing and coding anywhere) requires great levels of concentration and memory.  There are many specifics to learn, commit to memory and recall, as needed once you enter the fast paced work world.  For this reason, I think nearly all our readers could benefit from some tips on how to keep your brain fresh and operating at optimal levels.  | Some of these things are intuitive like, “Don’t deprive yourself of sleep if it can be helped” and “Eat more foods with Omega 3 fatty acids which help boost brain activity”.  But there are alot of other techniques too like “Making sure to find laughter and laugh often” and “Enjoy a glass of wine several times each week” which don’t seem like the standard, run of the mill suggestions. Here and here are some links to several sites offering more orthodox and unorthodox ideas for keeping your mind sharp.

Productivity Boosting Sites for Students

Being an online student at Allen School means you’re already someone inclined to multi-task and to find innovative ways of getting work done more quickly and efficiently.  So you’ll probably be stoked with this list of nearly 30 websites designed to help students optimize their activities in such student-centric areas as online research, homework composition, buying/selling of textbooks, handy tools and academic social networking.  Find easy PDF converters, textbook exchanges, professor reviews and many other tools, services and products to help optimize your productivity as a student.  Visit this Student Productivity Guide for the details.  You can thank me later!

Top Job Locations for 2012 – Hope You Like the Desert

Forbes magazine is out with its list of top states for job growth in 2012.  Four of the top 5 on the Forbes list of 10 are desert states.  Texas, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico are numbers one through four.  Before you pull up stakes though, pack your freshly minted Allen School Online medical billing and coding certificate and head West, consider this important caveat.  All the states on Forbes’ list are so-called “right to work” states.  These are states that have instituted laws making it more difficult for unions to organize.  As a result, lots of large companies, particularly manufacturers, have made the move into these states to take advantage of lower wage standards in the absence of collective bargaining.  This may explain the jump in available positions and new hiring in these states.  While medical billing and coding jobs are generally not candidates for unionized workforces (except maybe in large healthcare organizations), it is worth noting that workers  “right to work” states generally suffer lower overall earning power than their counterparts in other states.   So unless you’re super fond of painted desert landscapes, native American artwork and motifs or warm winter months, you may be better off staying coastal.  After all both Oregon and Georgia made the list too!