At each Ross Medical Education Center campus, the staff and faculty are dedicated to making a positive impact on their students and their communities. In addition to the various community service events that each campus works hard at each month, they also plan educational field trips for classes to go to. The Flint campus is no exception. In fact, during the month of June, the Medical Insurance Billing and Office Administration students had the opportunity to attend two different off-campus activities in their field.
In the middle of the month, the evening Medical Insurance Billing and Office Administration students were invited to attend the American Academy of Professional Coder’s (AAPC) monthly meeting. Tina Gagh, representative from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, was the speaker for the evening. The students were delighted to be able to watch Ms. Gagh navigate Blue Cross Blue Shield’s website to assist with accurate coding. They also were excited to spend their evening networking with actual medical coders from various settings. Sabrina Irelan, a Ross student, said, “networking was my favorite part of the event. I spoke with a coder from a gastroenterology office and an office manager from physical therapy!”
At the end of the month, the Medical Insurance Billing and Office Assistant class was again given the chance to get some real life experience. This time, the students visited Mid-Michigan Medical Billing Service, Inc. at their office location on Miller Road in Flint. Mid-Michigan Medical Billing Service, Inc. presented a free one hour workshop on ICD-10-CM for physicians, billers, coders, office staff, and managers in the community. Ross students had just completed ICD-10-CM coding in module 2, and they were interested to see if new information would be presented during the workshop. TiOra Turner, evening student, returned to class after the field trip and commented that Rebecca Jackson, her instructor, had covered everything in the workshop already in class! Angela Molina, evening student, commented that she learned what each of the seven character places meant specifically from the workshop, which she did not remember hearing in class. The workshop had about 25 medical professionals in attendance, and included a PowerPoint presentation and handouts for participants. It was a great experience that each student was able to take something from!