Medical billing involves everything from getting authorization for patient visits, collecting co-payments, submitting claims and reports to the insurance companies, posting payments, writing off discounts and billing patients for unpaid amounts. One can even be involved in following up on unpaid claims and appealing denied claims. Usually the smaller the office the greater the variety of duties. Overall the outlook is good.
All insurance payments depend upon coding the procedure (what was done) and the diagnosis (why it was done). In simple cases the doctor provides the code for you and so the information simply needs to be entered into the computer and the claim generated and submitted even on paper or electronically. General medical insurance billing and coding can get intricate as the laws are constantly changing but is comparatively easy.
Now the most challenging is coding from patient records. It involves the coder reading the patient's chart and abstracting (taking out) all the diagnoses and procedures performed. It can get very intricate and difficult. I have taught medical billing and coding for several years. Virtually all my students could grasp the basics of billing and coding. However, only a very few had the aptitude for coding. Not to say that the other students couldn't do advanced coding, but they had to work harder for it.
Right now the big money is in hospital billing and coding rather than doctor office billing and coding. Hospital coding has been exploding in recent years and I believe it will continue as the baby boomers continue to reach 65. I can't be completely sure of this in case the health bill that was passed really eventually goes into effect.
If you go into billing know that you can eventually have your own business. However, I highly recommend that you work for someone else first, learn from them and make your mistakes on their dime before you venture out on your own.
Should you decide to go into coding as a profession get certified as soon as you can. Be very careful because you can be held liable for errors as some can appear to be insurance fraud.
Best of luck to you.