Hello! I am Lance Smith and have been working in the HIM profession in various roles for 12 years. While I did not have HIM as a professional aspiration, meaning that I didn’t tell my parents that I wanted to be in HIM when I grew up, I am glad that I discovered it.
The reason that I am very happy with HIM is that there are many different avenues of growth within the profession. There is the “traditional” route into managerial roles such as HIM Director or Coding Manager. I have been in HIM managerial positions, as well as a coder, a physician office biller and now my current position of a compliance and privacy officer. The skills I gained in my HIM education and work have proven to be invaluable in health care compliance. Not only because of the coding knowledge, but the skills gained have helped me to provide education to our physicians and their staff members on all kinds of compliance issues – HIPAA, coding, billing, government regulations and the like.
I also teach a medical coding and billing course at our local adult education program. While it is very rudimentary – shows the basics of this profession without delving into the “nitty gritty” – it does get many people interested in our field and whether they go into the profession at entry level jobs or further their education, I believe that this is the best way to enhance our profession – to spread the word of how wonderful it can be!
I look forward to working on this exciting endeavor and hope that I can be of help to all of you pursuing a career in HIM. Thank you.