I have heard it described as “boomerang syndrome” before. It is when you finally get your adult child out of the house, but then they end up coming back. And this is exactly what my daughter has done a few times. Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter. But I have done my part. She is grown up now, and she needed to start living on her own.

One of the problems that she had was finding steady employment. I know; I’ve heard it all before. Yes, it is tough out there right now. But I laid down the law this last time and told her she needed to get out. But I didn’t just kick her to the curb. I told her I would pay for her to learn how to do medical billing. Once trained, those jobs are easy to find. And anything in healthcare seems like it will have good job security.

So she did the online medical billing training and got a job right away. And as of last week she is out from under my roof! She rented a place not far from my house. She is still coming over to my house to do laundry, but I’m OK with that.

There are a lot of work from home schemes that you can find online. They all seem pretty inviting too, but many of them just seem a little bit too good to be true. And you know what they say about things that seem too good to be true: There usually are.

The big one you see all of the time is filling out surveys. Supposedly you can get cash just for filling out surveys online. But then when you sign up to do this you find out that the surveys don’t pay cash. Instead you earn reward points. And you have to earn a lot of these points before you can trade them in for stuff. That’s not money, that’s stuff!

But there is one out there that I don’t think is a scheme. You can do medical transcriptions or medical billing from the comfort of your own home. All you need is some training which can be done online. Once you are trained you may have to buy some specialized software like medical billing software, but then you are good to go. I’m kind of excited about the prospect of earning some money by working at home, so I’m going to follow up and see if this is for real.

There has been a lot of talk lately about how the medical field is one of the only sectors of employment that is seeing growth. Unlike other industries that are in dire straights to the point of needing government bailouts, the medical field is actually hiring new people instead of firing their old ones. And based on the demographics of our aging society, this trend is expected to continue for quite a while.

Of course when we think of the medical field the first thing that comes to mind is doctors and nurses. But there is much more to this career area than just the part where people practice medicine. Think of all of the support and infrastructure that is needed to pull of what we call our modern health care system.

One often overlooked area is medical billing. And if medical billing itself is not overlooked, than how about the people that develop the software needed for medical billing? Medical billing software is truly specialty software. And people that develop this software are in high demand because it is such a dynamic field. Just when systems are set in stone, along comes something new (like government involvement) and everything changes. So there is a huge need and good job security in developing medical billing software.

There are still good jobs out there. Where? In the medical field! That’s because there are more people than ever who are getting to the age that they need medical attention from the whole aging process. Plus, the same number of people as ever will continue to get sick or hurt. Let’s face it: The medical field is not going away.

And the jobs that available are not just for doctors and nurses either. Hospitals and health clinics need all of the usual support staff too. You know what I’m talking about. Like transcriptionists, janitors and even medical billing people. And here’s one that I bet you didn’t already think of.

Those people who do the medical billing need very specialized software. So if they need this specialized software, then they are also going to need people to develop this software! And software development is a business where there are millions and millions of dollars to be made. So if you become a medical billing software designer, you can get your hands on a piece of this big money. Obviously there are certain educational requirements to get the skills needed to do this. But once you are educated great jobs with great job security will be there!

Right now when you think of the job market, what comes to mind? If you said “layoffs” you are by no means alone in that thought! People are losing their jobs left and right. And it seems like hardly anybody is hiring out there. Is it all doom and gloom? Well maybe not. There is one field that is currently exploding and is looking for qualified people to fill new positions.

I am talking about medical billing. The health care industry in general is seeing (and will continue to see) massive growth as the baby boomers get up there in years. Of course breaking into the medical field can be tough. It takes a long time to become a nurse. It takes even longer to become a doctor. And the sheer expense of spending that much time in college is huge.

However, people who pursue a medical billing career can get their needed education very easily. Just about any junior college has courses that can prepare you for this career. And if going to a junior college doesn’t fit into your current schedule there is also the option of online college. Almost every online college offers full blown preparation for the field of medical billing.

My major in school was computers, more on the software side than the hardware side.  I have a knack for being able to spot a problem and create or manipulate software to provide a solution.  I can’t explain it, I just SEE it.

So when I was hired at a doctor’s office to help with their medical billing software, I was shocked at how cumbersome it seemed to me.  Now I know that medical billing and insurance and all of that involves liability, tracking and accountability to the highest degree, but the (in my opinion) unnecessary minutia resulted in very cumbersome billing processes.

I’ve been working on designing a program to streamine things a bit more, but so far, the boss has nixed all of them.  He sees it as a shortcut; I see it as improved productivity.  I think it’s just that he’s comfortable with off the shelf software, but I see an opportunity for change!

I’ve been a medical billing specialist for my entire career. I love it and I am good at it.

At 41, I became a mom and have decided to stay home.  I think that the skills I’ve applied in the office could very easily transfer to a home business, so I recently started a medical billing service from the house.  My most recent employer was understandably a little hesitant at first, but now she sees that I’m actually more productive at home than I was in the office.  No one is interuppting me or chatting me up when I’m trying to work, and I no longer have to stop work and run out the door right at 5pm to go pick up the baby.  She is very pleased.

I’d be curious if anyone else out there is doing this and if they are aware of any ethical issues with providing billing service to more than one doctor, as I am working as a contractor, not an employee. Let me know!