DollarDesk

Course 08

US Medical Billing

Handle the billing cycle for US healthcare practices: insurance checks, claims, payment posting and denied-claim follow-up.

Who it’s for

For careful, detail-minded people who are comfortable with numbers and phone calls in English, and want steady work with US clinics and medical billing companies.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain the US revenue cycle from patient visit to payment
  • Verify a patient's insurance eligibility and benefits
  • Enter charges and submit clean claims
  • Read an EOB and post insurance and patient payments
  • Work denied claims and call insurance companies about unpaid ones
  • Handle patient information the way HIPAA requires

Course outline

6 modules
  1. 01

    Module 1

    US healthcare and the revenue cycle

    • How US health insurance works: Medicare, Medicaid and private payers
    • Providers, payers and patients: who pays what
    • The revenue cycle step by step
    • Billing jobs and what each one does
  2. 02

    Module 2

    HIPAA and patient privacy

    • What HIPAA protects and why clients care
    • Handling patient data safely when working remotely
    • Why patient data never goes into AI tools
    • What to do if something goes wrong
  3. 03

    Module 3

    Codes and claims

    • CPT, ICD-10 and HCPCS codes a biller needs to read
    • Modifiers and place of service basics
    • The CMS-1500 claim form, field by field
    • Charge entry and claim submission through a clearinghouse
  4. 04

    Module 4

    Eligibility, payments and posting

    • Eligibility and benefits checks
    • Prior authorisations
    • Reading EOBs and ERAs
    • Posting payments and adjustments
  5. 05

    Module 5

    Denials and AR follow-up

    • Common denial reasons and how to fix them
    • Corrected claims and appeals
    • Calling insurance companies about claim status
    • Working an aging AR report
  6. 06

    Module 6

    Getting billing work

    • Who hires remote billers: clinics and billing companies
    • Certifications to aim for later: AAPC CPB and NHA CBCS
    • CV, profile and test tasks
    • Practising in demo billing software

Read a free sample

From the guidebook

The first section of the US Medical Billing guidebook, exactly as buyers get it.

From the guidebookSection: Start here

Start here: your first $500 in US medical billing

US doctors, clinics and therapists get most of their money from insurance companies, not directly from patients. Every visit has to be turned into a correct insurance claim, sent, tracked, paid, and chased if it's denied. That work is called medical billing or revenue cycle management (RCM), and a large share of it is done remotely, including by many companies in Pakistan.

Route What you do Pay Why it's a good start
Job at a Pakistani RCM company (best first step) AR follow-up calls, eligibility checks, payment posting on US night shifts Monthly PKR salary Paid training, real systems, real claims. Two years here makes you very hireable
Part-time contractor for a US billing company Payment posting, charge entry, eligibility checks in their systems About $5–8/hr to start Steady hours once trusted
Small US practice (therapist, chiropractor, small clinic) The practice's whole billing, part-time $8–12/hr or a monthly fee Highest pay, but only after you have experience

Medical billing is about trust and accuracy. Most beginners earn their first $500 through a job or a billing company, then move to direct clients once they have experience they can prove.

The 5 steps

  1. Learn the cycle (days 1–10). Read sections 1–3. Learn the words until you can explain deductible, coinsurance and a denial without notes.
  2. Learn HIPAA properly (days 5–10). Section 2. One privacy mistake ends a billing career; clients test for it in interviews.
  3. Practise on paper (days 10–20). Do every workbook drill: claim forms, EOBs, denials, insurance calls.
  4. Apply and pitch (days 15–30). Apply to RCM companies in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Multan and Faisalabad, and to remote billing roles on LinkedIn and Upwork. Headline: "Medical Billing Specialist · Eligibility, claims, payment posting, AR follow-up · HIPAA-trained · US hours".
  5. Get certified later (month 3+). Once you're working, aim for a billing certification (section 6). It raises your pay and opens direct clients.

Get paid

For contract and freelance work, open a Payoneer account before your first client pays. It receives US dollars and sends them to your Pakistani bank account. Upwork also pays out to Payoneer or directly to your bank.

$500 is about PKR 140,000 at roughly PKR 280 per dollar (approximate, check today's rate). That is your first goal.

Templates and scripts

  • Insurance call scripts for AR follow-up
  • Denial reasons & fixes cheat sheet
  • Eligibility check checklist

Tools you’ll use

  • Tebra (Kareo)
  • AdvancedMD
  • athenahealth
  • eClinicalWorks
  • Availity
  • Office Ally
  • Excel

Roles you can apply for

  • Medical Billing Specialist
  • AR Follow-up Caller
  • Eligibility Verification Specialist
  • Payment Poster
  • Denial Management Specialist
What comes with every course
Portrait of Umar Waseem

Your instructor

Umar Waseem

US Medical Billing Instructor, DollarDesk

Umar teaches US medical billing at DollarDesk. He walks students through the revenue cycle step by step, from checking a patient's insurance to getting a denied claim paid, so they are ready for a billing company's test and their first real claims.

Strengths in US Medical Billing

  • Teaches the full billing cycle: eligibility, charge entry, claims and payment posting
  • Focuses on denial fixes and insurance follow-up calls, the skills billing companies test first
  • Puts HIPAA and patient privacy at the centre of every remote billing task
  • Prepares students for billing company tests, interviews and night-shift work