What the School Says

Healthcare is a field with a number of different sections, systems, and practices, and healthcare reimbursement is an extremely important sector in many hospitals, medical buildings, and doctor’s offices. Virginia College Online offers students an associate degree program in healthcare reimbursement that focuses in specialized training in medical billing and coding for health service reimbursement procedures. The degree program, which requires a total of 96 credit hours, is composed of general education requirements, areas of concentration requirements, and foundations requirements. The area of concentration requirements, which accounts for 60 credit hours, includes courses in anatomy and physiology, medical coding, medical billing, advanced billing, medical law, and medical insurance applications. The foundation requirements, 12 credit hours, focuses on keyboarding, planning, and basics, while the general education requirements, 24 credit hours, includes courses in communications, humanities and fine arts, mathematics, and social sciences. Financial aid options are available to students that qualify for assistance.

What We Say

Upon the completion of this program, graduates will have the knowledge to handle medical records accordingly and confidentially, will know how to utilize medical and billing software, analyze financial and accounting data, and will have learned a number of other important practices and functions to be productive in a healthcare reimbursement position. Graduates of this degree are prepared for positions in medical offices, hospital business offices, insurance companies, and healthcare consulting firms. Popular jobs for graduates in this field are medical transcriptionists, medical billing technicians, and medical coding technicians. Medical transcriptionists earned a median annual salary of $32,060 in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment change projected by the bureau, estimated an increase of at least 11% in new jobs and availability by 2018, creating many new jobs for candidates interested in this degree and the follow-up positions.