A hot new home-based business opportunity is medical coding - the profession of coding medical documents and related insurance claim forms.

INDEPENDENT MEDICAL CODING is the definitive guidebook which gives step-by-step instructions for setting up and successfully managing a small medical coding services business.

The authors describe the market and the very attractive business opportunities available.

• Coding fundamentals
• Education requirements
• Credentialing 
• Skills vital to success. 
• Home-office set-up
• Marketing
• Contracts
• Pricing
• Business operations
• Ethics
• Risk management
• Finances
• Taxes
• and much more.

Currently, there is a shortage of qualified medical coders in health care, and as managed care increases, more coders will be needed. INDEPENDENT MEDICAL CODING shows how to be on the forefront of this exciting new industry:

• How to be a confident, successful medical coder
• How to achieve independence, working when and where you choose
• How to earn an excellent income and enjoy career security

Why are coders important? In layman's language, each health care treatment involves: 1) a diagnosis of the patient's problem and 2) a treatment to try to fix the problem.

To arrive at a diagnosis such things as lab tests, scans, and x-rays are necessary. Treatment involves hospitalization, doctor visits, prescription drugs, surgery, therapy or other options.

In order to accurately pay doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, labs, ambulance companies and the myriad other health care providers (and to track diagnoses and treatments for national and international health care statistical databases), it is necessary for each element of the diagnosis and each part of the treatment to be assigned a specific multi-digit code chosen from an extensive system of codes standardized by the health care industry.

The person selecting the code for each step is the "coder," whose accuracy, conscientiousness and ethics are crucial to proper payment by private and government insurers.