The Importance of Sleep

sleeping1I probably don’t need to tell people who juggle online studies, work and family that it is important to make sure you carve out enough time for sleep.  We all know how spacey and “out of it” we feel when we miss sleep.  Sleep deprivation can be very dangerous.  Yet, recently, UCLA professor and sleep expert, Jerome Siegel questioned whether sleep had any correlation to physiological and neural functions.  In short, do we really need to sleep? Continue reading…

Unemployment Spawns New Gold Rush

goldpanningWith a promising future in a growth field, most Allen School students are not fretting over their long term employment prospects.  Yet the overall poor state of employment in the US driven by the recession has left many without any solid prospects in the near term.  While most will wait it out, some have taken to a different type of “prospecting” – panning for gold in California. Continue reading…

Take a Vacation – Doctor’s Orders

vacationWell it is officially the dog days of summer.  Scorching heat and in the Northeast, stifling humidity have come to call reminding us all that back-to-school time is just around the corner.  Since August is typically a big month for family vacations,  I thought it would be timely to reveal a recent study performed by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, showing that there are tangible health benefits to taking a break from your daily grind. Continue reading…

The March of Progress in Medicine

1800s-surgeryStudents of Allen School Online ought to be very proud of themselves for being at the forefront of change in the medical industry.  The next decade will usher in radical changes in the way medical billing and coding are performed.  The inevitable transition from paper-based procedures to electronic medical filing will allow you to be one of those who “remembers the old way we used to do this”. Continue reading…

2009 Graduation Photos

10On Thursday, June 6th, 2009, at the Queens College Colden Auditorium, a ceremony was held honoring the largest Allen School graduating class in its almost fifty year history – a full 1400 graduates – which included graduates from the Medical Assistant and Nursing Assistant programs and the first group of graduates from the Allen School’s new Online Medical Insurance Billing & Coding program. The online graduates who attended with their families were not only from New York, but also from such distant places as Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Ohio. Continue reading…

Did You Know that Billing and Coding Specialists are Health Information Management professionals?

So who are health information professionals? We are credentialed professionals who manage individual health records as well as aggregate data. We carry expertise in health care databases, medical classification systems, flow of clinical information, medico-legal issues, uses of health information, and data security systems. Our common purpose is to provide reliable and valid information that drives the healthcare industry. We are specialists in administrating information systems, managing medical records, coding information for reimbursement and research. We are uniquely qualified to:
  • Provide expertise on compliance issues and the integration of clinical documentation and coding with the billing process.
  • Provide assistance and function as a key resource/project manager for the development, transition, and maintenance of an electronic health record
  • Assist with implementation and function as a key resource on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) including information system security issues and privacy.
  • Develop, implement and monitor health information department policy and procedures and job descriptions.
  • Provide training and orientation to health information personnel on functions of the department and facility staff on documentation.
  • Develop and maintain health information systems and processes that meet regulatory requirements (both state and federal), professional practice standards, legal standards, and management/corporate policy.
  • Establish a process for systematically reviewing documentation on an ongoing basis for both quality and quantity of documentation.
  • Complete documentation/medical record audits and monitoring with an ability to assess the quality of documentation.
  • Recommend corrective actions for findings on medical record audits/monitoring.
  • Initiate clinical record systems and indexes.
  • Assist with forms development and forms analysis/flow.
  • Support compliance process of facility/organization.
  • Support quality assurance/quality improvement process of the facility/organization.
  • Train staff on quality assurance/quality improvement process related to health information management and appropriate methods for the collection of data.
  • Provide resources to the facility on health information, documentation, regulations, standards of practice, etc.
Not only do we have diverse roles we work throughout the continuum of care. So if you are thinking of an exciting new career this is the place to come!