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Boyd: A lot of people are hearing about you for the first time here, so we wanted to get a little profile on you, Tammy. So, tell us a little bit about how long you’ve been involved in medical coding and how you got started.
Tamara: I have been in this field for 20 years now. I got started just because I didn’t know what else to do my whole life, I guess, and I didn’t want to work from minimum wage, and I wanted a career and not a job. I’m a military wife, we were stationed in San Antonio and I went to school to do this, and it was really funny my instructor at that time said that certification is okay but you have to wait two years before you can get certified, and no one really encouraged us. So, I am so thrilled that our field has turned around where we want to encourage everyone to get certified.
Boyd: Awesome. Well, we got some questions here for you, so let’s go to the next slide.
What Kind of Person Signs up for a Medical Auditing Courses? – Video
Boyd: Tell us a little bit Tammy about the kind of person who signs up for the medical auditing course. You’ve taught a lot of people over the years now, so what kind of common factors do you see there?
Tamara: The medical auditing courses is one of those courses that – I may sound strange to say that people just didn’t jump on to become an auditor of medical records, it wasn’t something that we talk about enough a lot out there. And then when coders realize we’re dealing with E/M, almost all of us go, “Ugh” and we don’t want to do E/M, anyway. But, due to RAC, it became a little bit more popular, I got to speak. Physicians and facilities were now sending some of their coders to get certified in auditing so that it keeps them better informed, better educated, and they don’t have the likelihood of getting hit so hard in a RAC audit; so I’m seeing a lot of folks coming out of practice and it cracks me up because their bosses made them do it.
Alicia: [Laughs] I like that.
