Hi all,

I have been the caretaker to my mother for the last 5 years. This with the demands of nursing proved to be too much and now I only function as a glorified medication assistant per diem at an assisted living. My mother recently passed and now I have time to refocus and get back to work full time and I want out of nursing. I have been living off of savings pretty much for the past two years as my mother's health deteriorated with just working enough to barely survive. Bottom line is that I am thinking of taking a medical billing and coding certificate to work in this capacity. Has anyone done this? I am not seeing any jobs in this field that do not require experience first.

Also, I was wondering if there were a way to just buy the books and study on my own to pass the certifications. As a nurse I am of course already familiar with medical terminology and procedures.

Thanks, Heather

Hi Heather. I am so sorry to hear about your mother's passing.

Unfortunately I am not sure you will get much response here, as this is a nursing board and few, if any, will probably have info on becoming certified for billing and coding. I do know it doesn't really pay very well compared to working as an RN. I also know it is subject to being outsourced overseas, thus making jobs scarce as well as wages low. I hope you find the answers you are seeking and I hope you are healing.

I have 2 relatives (not nurses) that took some sort of coding class & could never get a job. However, I am not an expert on how all of that works.

I'm certain there are nursing jobs out there that would want you. You say you're a "glorified med assistant", but is your job title there an RN? If so, give yourself credit for what you're doing. In my area I even see RN jobs in assisted living once in awhile.

So sorry about the loss of your mother ❤️

Can you work from home doing phone triage? Maybe you could do that part time.

When I looked into becoming a CMA, there were coding classes. You might have a different experience, but coding is not, to me, something you pick up while nursing.

We have case managers that know insurance ins and outs but it seems really complicated and a completely different world than nursing

Those billing and coding courses are a scam unfortunately. If you are interested in that type of work, something like utilization review may be a good job to look into. I don't know how much experience you had, but that kind of job does require experience.

Sorry to hear about your mom's passing.

I know one coworker, a HUC who went to school and became a coder. She was hired by the corp hospital system we work for, but they didn't even give her a raise. It should pay more than a HUC.

I agree with the others who suggest trying to get an insurance job in case management or utilization review. That would be a much better paying job where you could use your nursing degree, rather than working as a coder which I think the median pay is around $45,000 I had read on Glassdoor.

My sister used to be a RDH, and is now a coder. She has years of experience doing it--she did it on the side since graduating high school and when she quit her hygenist job 5 years ago, went straight into it full time since she can do it at home. She lives in a large metro area, is always busy, but makes around $14-15/hr. This does not equate to a high $$$ job, especially with the years of experience that she has (25+). A lady in her neighborhood didn't listen to her and spent thousands on one of those programs that they advertise on FB. Sis tried to tell her not to do it, but of course the ad doesn't lie. The lady is out the thousands and has no job because she has no experience. So, I'll just say, buyer beware! Like any other education experience, so your research! Good luck and I hope you can find a job that does fulfill your needs

I spent (threw away) three grand on a coding course. I figured it would help me get into a utilization review-type job, but it hasn't. The only difference it made was when I was in a care manager position my boss would give me charts that needed diagnosis codes added (big whoop - anyone can do that).

Even if I wanted to take a huge pay cut and be a coder, most positions require previous experience - especially home-based ones, which would be my preference.