# Salary Help/Questions



## AprilSueMadison (Jun 27, 2013)

I know talking salary is often considered taboo, but I'm at a loss on how to find out more information.  I'm trying to find out more about my salary.  What I am making now is the least I have made in over seven years, but I needed a job (and was hired for data entry at the time) so I didn't protest.  I have a BS in HIM, my CPC-D, three and a half years of experience in insurance (one year in a hospital and half of a year with an insurance company, two years now in a provider setting). I was hired to do data entry and that was pretty much it two years ago.  However, today, I do and have done many of the following

•Review and update data collection forms (recreated all of our forms)
•Review data security and PHI (created our security plan)
•Prepare HIPAA compliance training as well as other ongoing training for employees (created training for HIPAA)
•Assist in the Meaningful Use program by monitoring issues, communicating changes to employees, looking for ways to optimize our data collection and more (co-manage our meaningful use program which includes reports, data, training, and I did all of the set up for it in our EHR)
•Review medical documentation to ensure correct documenting and coding has occurred (found trouble spots and have actively created training material, trained said material and changed the way we document in the EHR)
•Manage commercial payers (every...single...one, this includes posting all payments, creating tracking methods to ensure all corrected claims and denials are continually managed, work to ensure problem claims are corrected)
•Research and review laws to ensure we are compliant with all that apply (I have a file for Florida laws that has allowed us to change the way we collect patient payments, to how we manage our collections process and more)
•Work as a receptionist as needed
•Work as a medical assistant as needed
•Manage our pathology software and enter all patient lab results.
•Manage our EHR templates (I am the one who creates them, changes them and works with our vendor to get what we need)
•Provide general tech support as needed 
•Manage our patient portal
•I have also been training on ICD-10 like mad because I will be the one to handle our transition 100%.  From the creation of training material, to managing our vendor, to doing the training, changing all of our forms and policies...you name it, if it's ICD-10 related...it's me.
•Coding all nursing home visits
•Coding difficult visits 
•Audit doctors on a regular basis to ensure they are documenting and coding correctly

There is SO much more than this.  I'm ridiculously busy every day at work and enjoy it for the most part.  But right now, making fourteen dollars an hour for all of this is making me feel rather wiped out and unappreciated.  They have asked me to stay for a minimum of five years, because I will be taking over the billing department completely soon (I handle 90% of it, and will be taking over collections and Medicare to make that a full 100%...I only do these things currently as needed)...but for this amount of money, I just don't know.

First, if you were me, what would you do?  Second, if you have the ability to hire someone who needed to do those things, how much would you pay them?  Is there a place I can research salaries more?  I currently have the title of HIM Specialist because they weren't for sure where else I fell in.  I would like to ask for a raise, but I'd like to have more information to see if I really should.


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## bethdeak (Jun 27, 2013)

When you were hired for your job were you given a list of job duties for your position?

Can you show that your job duties have markedly increased over the time you've been in this position?  Can you show the added value you bring into the practice with the jobs and tasks that you currently perform?

Here's a link to some salaries in the Florida area to see how you compare:
http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Medical-Coder-l-Florida.html

What you really need to do is take that list and figure out a way to put a percentage down on the time you do each task. When you say "as needed" is that as needed daily? As needed and it happens once in six months?  Most jobs require us to jump in on additional things as needed but if it's becoming a large part of your job duty that's another story.  You need to really figure out the average salary for the area and what percent of your time you spend on what tasks.

Right now it doesn't sound like you are coding full time, what percent of the NH and difficult visits do you spend time coding? What percent of time is spend auditing physicians?

I really suggest breaking out and tracking your daily duties for a week or two, and figuring out your percentage and using that data to explore whether or not it would be warranted to ask for a raise.


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