Is Getting A Medical Billing And Coding Certification Worth It

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Becoming certified is mandatory with some careers, while in others, it is recommended or simply considered voluntary. Even when it is not required, obtaining a certification can give a job seeker the edge with a prospective employer. For those who already have a job, it can increase the chance for promotion. Medical billers and coders sometimes wonder if getting a voluntary medical billing and coding certification is worthwhile.

First, a bit about certification, which is usually obtained after graduation from a formal educational program. Individuals must take and pass a certification exam to demonstrate that they meet a minimum competency level. Several organizations offer certifications in different areas of the medical billing and coding field. Most of them are professional membership-based societies and in nearly all cases, the certification is valued for a certain period, typically one year. To renew the certification, the individual must earn a specified number of continuing education units.

It is important to distinguish this voluntary certification process from a state-mandated licensing requirement. Currently, no U.S. state requires a license to practice as a medical biller or coder. Though certification is also not required, it helps people illustrate their commitment to this profession and increases potential income and advancement opportunities. By holding a certification, individuals have hard evidence that they possess the basic level of knowledge important to performing well within this career.

The American Medical Billing Association, AMBA, offers the Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist (CMRS) certification. The required exam, which costs $325 plus the cost of AMBA membership, features 16 sections containing 700 questions. The questions cover medical terms, medical coding, insurance reimbursement, federal compliance, and claim appeals. To receive the CMRS designation, a person must score at least 85 percent on the exam.

Both the Certified Medical Billing Associate (CMBA) and Certified Healthcare Billing and Management Executive (CHBME) designations are offered by the Healthcare Billing and Management Association. These are designed for supervisors, managers, and executives in medical billing and coding. The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) offers the highest credentials in medical billing, RHIA and RHIT. RHIA, a Registered Health Information Administrator, manages medical records and other patient health information. An RHIT, Registered Health Information Technician, is an information technician who specializes in medical records and related computer systems and applications.

In the field of medical coding, certifications are offered by both AHIMA and the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC). Deciding which credentials to obtain requires determining the desired career path and which designations a relevant employer will prefer. AAPC certifications include Certified Professional Coder (CPC) and AHIMA certifications include Certified Coding Associate (CCA) and Certified Coding Specialist (CCS).

Whether individuals are medical billers or coders, their level of experience, type of employer, and other factors determine which type of medical billing and coding certification is appropriate. The good news is there are plenty of certifications to choose from and none of them are currently voluntary. People can spend time obtaining multiple certifications to give themselves a competitive edge for hiring, pay, and promotions.

Last 10 Authors – Microsoft Word How To

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Many computer forensic examiners and attorneys are aware that metadata is valuable to many corporate cases. Metadata is the information stored within Microsoft Office and other files that can tell when files were created, edited, printed, stored and dozens of other facts.

One of the most valuable areas of information is referred to as ‘Last 10 Authors’. Last 10 Authors/Locations is an area of a Microsoft Word file that, as it states, stores the last 10 authors and locations for the file.

A common assumption amongst litigation support professionals and attorneys is that last 10 authors will be extracted during an electronic discovery process. In fact, last 10 authors isn’t included in the OLE stream metadata and is not extracted by common electronic discovery products or vendors.

OLE stream metadata is what is visibile and often extracted through computer forensics, electronic discovery and several free utilities. Microsoft provides a dll library to allow software developers to easily access dozens of metadata fields (i.e. Title, Author, Date Last Printed, Date Last Saved etc.), however, the dll and other metadata libraries (as well as scrubbing utilities) don’t provide access to the last 10 authors information.

Once an attorney realizes what information can be available from last 10 authors and locations they can be elated or very concerned depending on who they are representing. It is of additional concern when attorneys realized their scrubbing software or vendor didn’t remove this information.

In a recent computer examination I was examining a USB drive which contained the current working files of the suspect. We were also provided access to a laptop which the suspect claimed was the only computer used in addition to the office computer.

Because of the age of the laptop, size of the hard drive and user log files we doubted that the suspect had used the laptop for much of anything for awhile. Additionally, there were two older operating systems intalled which haven’t been used for many years.

It was the last 10 authors that allowed us to provde that not only had the laptop not been recently used to create, modify or save any work related files last 10 authors also allowed us to identify two other systems the individual had access to that were never produced for the case.

The last 10 authors provides not only the author but the location of the file. Additionally, the autosave feature in Word can cause the location of a file to be stored even if the user didn’t manually save their documents.

There are numerous examples of how the last 10 authors is used to win and defend cases. The savy attorneys and computer forensic examiners review this information when examinig their clients files or those produced by opposing counsel.

Not all electronic discovery vendors or computer forensic exaimers include last 10 author data in their processes. Pinpoint Labs has software and services geared towards analyzing and scrubbing last 10 authors data.

In summary, last 10 authors is referred to as metadata, however, it isn’t accessible through most computer forensic software or electronic discovery application. Last 10 authors data can be viewed and scrubbed using applications from Pinpoint Labs (Pinpoint MetaViewer, MetaDiscover). There are a couple other applications, however, the applications from Pinpoint Labs can access and scrub the data without altering the file system timestamps and is significantly quicker than other applications reviewed.

The Purpose Of Antivirus Software

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Anti-virus software is software that you install on your computer so that you can be alerted when you have a virus. Anti-virus software will help to keep your computer safe against worms, viruses, Trojan horses, and other uninvited programs.

The software can also help you clean your computer if you should happen to have a virus. The important thing to remember about anti-virus software is that you make sure to update it often so that you get the latest computer virus definitions installed into the software program. There is no point in having the anti-virus software if youre not going to update it. Youll be able to get updates from the vendor that sold you the anti-virus software, such as Norton.

Many times you may already have anti-virus software on your computer in which case you be sure to uninstall it before installing your new software. To find out if you have virus software check under your Start menu to see if you one listed, such as McAfee or Norton. Keep in mind that just because you have anti-virus software already installed on your computer that it (1) might not be working, and (2) hasnt been updated for a long time.

Once youve installed anti-virus software on your computer youre going to want to make sure that you use it correctly. Make sure that the settings in your computer automatically turn the anti-virus software on when you boot up your computer. You always want to be protected. If youre downloading something off the Internet your anti-virus software will let you know if there is a problem.

You can also use the anti-virus software to specifically scan any downloads, or files, that that have been sent to you via e-mail. If you are alerted that you have a virus your software will guide you with the right steps to removing it. Make sure that you dont continue to use your computer until the virus, or worm that you have, is removed. You dont want to send e-mail to friends and help in the spreading of the virus.

Laptops Review-ASUS Vivo Book F202 touchscreen laptop

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We’re not going to dwell too much on the ASUS Vivo Book F202 laptop. It’s a cheap 11.6in model that’s aimed at students and anyone else who wants a small, touchscreen-enabled laptop for under $500. The design of the notebook is strong considering the price – in fact, it looks a little like a baby Zenbook – and it’s a small and easily mobile device that you can chuck in a backpack. But there is no escaping the fact that it doesn’t have a fast processor and compact Asus Keyboard .

The Vivo Book F202 is based on an Intel Celeron CPU, which supplies performance that’s about twice as fast as some of the last netbooks we reviewed almost two years ago (some of which were based on the AMD C-50 APU, for example). You won’t want to use this laptop to perform media encoding tasks or anything else that will tax the CPU, and multitasking will have to be undertaken in moderation as well if you don’t want to notice too much of a slowdown in performance.

Basically, the Vivo Book F202 is a good machine for browsing the Web, using social media, typing up documents, listening to music, viewing photos and watching videos. The screen has 10-input capacitive touch that you can use to move around the Windows 8 Start screen, but the hardware is a conventional clamshell – and at 1.4kg, it’s a little bit on the heavy side for its 11.6in size, but it ships with a small and relatively light adapter, which offsets that somewhat.

You can’t really use this model as a tablet – it’s just a regulation laptop with a touchscreen. The most you can do is tap on the screen every now and then to select something, move the cursor or hit a Live Tile and, of course, play touch-based games. We’ve slowly gotten used to doing just that on these new touch-enabled laptops, to the point where we now use our fingers to place the cursor at a particular place within a document we’re editing, in addition to using touch gestures for the Windows 8 Start screen and other features and Compatible Parts . The screen does rock back and forth when it’s touched though, and coupled with reflections off the glossy finish, this can be very annoying. It works best when you hold the screen with one hand while using the other hand to perform the touch action.

You’ll still want to use the keyboard and touchpad for the majority of your navigation, and the keyboard isn’t too bad as far as cheap laptops are concerned like the Samsung 300V Series 300V5A Keyboard . The keys feel solid to hit and they are responsive. Typing on the Vivo Book didn’t feel like a chore, but we did have to get used to the relatively cramped nature of the keyboard on the 11.6in form factor. The touchpad is large (105x61mm) and it supports Windows 8 gestures for accessing Charms, flicking through apps and bringing up context menus. However, its software is very limited; you can’t adjust aspects of the two-finger scrolling function, such as speed and coasting, and we couldn’t get three-finger flicks to work at all.

The 11.6in screen has a native resolution of 1366768, and it’s a panel with narrow viewing angles, which is standard for this segment of the laptop market. You’ll have to adjust the tilt regularly in order to fix brightness and contrast issues in photos, and even in Google search results as, in some cases, it can be hard to see the shaded background behind sponsored results verses organic results.

EXFO AXS-110-12CD Multimode OTDR

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Introduction

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The handheld AXS-110 Acess OTDR is specifically designed for the FTTx installer, and is also ideal for premise testing. User-friendly with one-touch testing, summary screen and macrobend identification. Complete connectivity flexibility using USB stick or RJ-45/USB cable data download.

Included is FastReporter software with powerful batch processing, bi-directional analysis and live templating for OTDR testing. The AXS-110 Single mode OTDR is ideal for FTTx/access and CATV testing. The AXS-110 Multimode OTDR is optimized for enterprise testing.

Key Features and Benefits:

. Event dead zone: 0.8 m
. Wavelengths: 1310/1490/1550/1625/850/1300 nm
. Dynamic range: up to 37 dB
. Battery autonomy: 8 hour

Applications

. FTTx/MDU PON network testing
. LAN/WAN testing
. Private network testing

Easy Location and Characterization of Events

EXFO’s AXS-110 All-Fiber OTDR helps you hoost test productivity for inside-plant applications. Its exceptional 0.8m event dead zone enables you to easily locate and characterize all events between the transmitter and the central offices fiber, access and FTTH network applications, where events are usually closely spaced.

Multimode and Single Mode Flexibility

The AXS-110 combines single mode and multimode functionalities, ideal for premises, private and enterprise network testing. Test multimode fiber within premises, or single mode fiber between
premises all with a single OTDR unit and maximize your return on investment.

End-to-End PON Characterization

The AXS-110 lets you test through high-port-count splitters even 1 x 64 splitters perfect for passive optical network (PON) testing, delivering these key advantages:

1. Perfect tool for FTTx contractors and tier-2 certification of premises networks
2. Pass/fail features that comply with industry standards such as TIA 568c and IEEE 802.3ah
3. Highest dynamic range of the industry for a handheld OTDR
4. Power meter option, for crosschecking the total loss using the built-in OTDR laser in continuous source mode

Key Features

. FasTrace function: one-touch testing for top user-friendliness
. 8-hour power autonomy
. USB port (memory-stick compatible) for easy data transfer
. Large internal memory (up to 500 results)
. Transflective color display for viewing clear results under bright sunlight
. Superior automated analysis for a better, easier and faster diagnosis
. Automatic pass/fail analysis and macrobend locating

Fiberstore is specializing in supplying fiber optic components and network equipment, and we are trying to complete this system. For the OTDR, we provide one year warranty for each domestic and foreign brand product. If you have any problems or special requirement of this high quality EXFO AXS-110-12CD Multimode OTDR, please feel free to contact us. We will try our best to provide you the best service. And we also offer other OTDRs, if you would like to want to know other OTDR price, please visit our website, all of our products’ price are displayed on the website.