The health industry is always changing, and it takes a variety of people doing a variety of jobs to keep it running well. In most cases, these are roles that require regular face-to-face interaction. But if you’re interested in health-care work and looking for remote education or even a remote career, medical billing and coding might be the choice for you!

Medical billers and coders help connect health information between patients, health providers, and insurance companies. Medical billing and coding is an ever-changing and ever-evolving industry requiring attention to detail, adaptability to technology, and frequent advancements and changes. Medical coders process patient data and code their diagnoses and medical services for insurance purposes.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, health information technicians have six main responsibilities:

1. Review patients’ records for timeliness, completeness, accuracy, and appropriateness of data
2. Organize and maintain data for clinical databases and registries
3. Track patient outcomes for quality assessment
4. Use classification software to assign clinical codes for insurance reimbursement and data analysis
5. Electronically record data for collection, storage, analysis, retrieval, and reporting
6. Maintain confidentiality of patients’ records

These common job duties require a deft handling of technology, both hardware and software, that may be best learned in an online environment. Online career training can help you ensure you’ve got the skills you need to have a successful career in the medical billing and coding field—and prepare you for a work environment primarily on a computer, whether at home or in an office.

More than a third of coders and billers work for hospitals or in a hospital setting, with the rest primarily employed by physicians’ offices, nursing care facilities, or in other administrative and professional services. As the population ages and the use of electronic health records increases, the BLS projects employment of health information technicians to grow 13 percent between 2016 and 2026.

Ready to get started on an online education for medical billing and coding? The Imagine America Foundation has a directory of schools and we can help you find the right one for you! These are partnership institutions that offer $1,000 scholarships for high school seniors, military personnel and veterans, and adult learners to help lower the cost of your tuition.