BIM 113: The Medical Office

Credits 5 Lecture Hours 44 Lab Hours 22
The course will cover the basic job skills and requirements needed to work in a medical office, making appointments, and referrals, HIPAA laws, retrieving billing and coding information, handling patient concerns and questions, proper telephone and collection techniques, managing health records and patient requirements for medical business office personnel. Additional topics include: the general flow of information, the role that computers play in a medical office, and how to use medical office software for activities such as entering data, billing, filing claims, scheduling, and printing reports.

Prerequisites

HED 119 or instructor permission and basic computer knowledge.
Quarters Offered
Fall,
Winter,
Spring
Course Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to demonstrate the following knowledge or skills:

  1. Detect and correct errors in business documents
  2. Apply spelling and capitalization rules
  3. Apply punctuation, number, and grammar rules
  4. Write clear, concise, and complete sentences
Institutional Outcomes
IO3 Human Relations/Workplace Skills: Students will be able to demonstrate teamwork, professionalism, and/or workplace specific skills.
Course Content Outline
  1. Basic skills, opportunities and requirements needed for medical office work
  2. Appointments, referrals, and document patients’ needs
  3. Release of information (HIPAA) laws
  4. Retrieving billing, coding, and other patient information
  5. Techniques for handling patient concerns and questions
  6. Telephone and Collection techniques
  7. Basic concepts of verifying credentials
  8. Introduction to practice management software
  9. Appointment scheduling
  10. Medical insurance
  11. Patient registration
  12. Procedure posting
  13. Insurance billing
  14. Claim processing
  15. Payment posting
  16. Billing and collections
Department Guidelines
The syllabus must contain evaluation/grading guidelines, class environment/expectations/rules, course learning outcomes, and a disability services statement. A schedule must be provided to students that contains content covered (text chapters, topics, etc.), tentative test dates (to include final date/time). If an LMS or similar site is used for the course, it must be created following the Quality Matters (QM) principals outlined in the QM workbook questions. These documents should be reviewed with the BIM instructor at least two weeks prior to class start.