For some reason medical billing has attracted more than it’s fair share of scams. If you’re interested in working at home doing medical billing be particularly wary of pitches that promise easy money with little or no effort. In fact, if you’re interested in working from doing anything be particularly wary of pitches that promise easy money with little or no effort. The world just doesn’t work that way.

If you’re looking to start your own medical billing business, learn about the challenges involved in medical billing, including the complex laws which apply before you fork over $200 or $500 or $3500. And understand that up to a year of training may be necessary in order to even begin to market your medical billing services to healthcare providers.

A few years ago, the FTC surfed the Internet and newspaper classifieds looking for ads promising consumers they could make fast, easy money running medical billing businesses from home. Hundreds of ads from dozens of companies were identified, and the Feds discovered that many of them were just rackets offering bogus credit cards or easy loans for a ridiculous fee to whoever called. Those that actually pitched medical billing products included:

• Electronic Processing Services, Inc., et al. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, marketed a $480 medical billing work-at-home opportunity, misrepresenting that the doctors whose names were supplied were likely to hire consumers to process their billing claims, and that consumers could expect to make a certain amount of money as medical billers.
• International Trader, d/b/a Premier Business Solutions, et al. A Nevada corporation, based in Los Angeles, California, marketed work-at-home medical billing opportunities through classified advertisements for $189. Through their telemarketing pitch, they misrepresented: 1) that they would provide consumers with the names of doctors likely to use them to process billing claims from home; 2) that consumers buying their materials could expect to earn a specific level of income (between $15 and $45 per hour); and 3) that consumers could readily obtain a refund upon request.
• Medical-Billing.Com, Inc., d/b/a Professional Management Consultants, et al. A Texas corporation based in Carrollton, Texas, sold their medical billing package for between $3,500 and $9,500. In telemarketing their program, they allegedly made numerous misrepresentations, including promises that: 1) they would help recruit doctors who would use the consumers to process their billing; 2) customers would earn substantial income providing billing services for health care professionals; and 3) they would give customers a full refund if the program did not meet their performance expectations.
• Electronic Medical Billing, Inc., et al. A Nevada corporation operating in Mission Viejo, California, sold a medical billing work-at-home business opportunity to consumers for $325. They misrepresented: 1) that the doctors whose names they provided to consumers were likely to hire them to do their billing; and 2) that consumers could expect to make a certain level of income through medical billing (between $25,000 and $50,000 a year, according to their classified ads).
• Physicians Healthcare Development (PHD Billing), Inc., et al. Based in Burbank, California, pitched a work-at-home medical billing opportunity for $319 to $425, telling consumers that they could make between $3 and $15 for each claim processed. They misrepresented that the system they sell will instantly enable consumers to launch a home-based billing business, that consumers can earn substantial income for this work, and that the doctors whose names they provided were prepared to hire the consumers to process their claims.

If you get a pitch that sounds like one of these you can be sure you’re being scammed.

Some nice looking websites warn you of scams, and claim they remove employers who ask for money from the job seeker to register. They even go so far as to claim a human rather than automated check on the company is performed, by actually registering as a prospective employee, to see if they are offering real jobs.

But these sites use jobs feeds from indeed, simplyhired, and jobster and they’re full of junk and scams. As far as we know there’s no way to screen them out of the feed.

Sure, the website can specify just the job streams that mention telecommuting, or assembly, or transcription, but we don’t know of any way to sift through them.

Assembly jobs are one of the most prolific scams out there. The concept of doing arts and crafts work at home, building little toys, electronic components, or jewelry and getting paid fot it is appealing to many people and is something virtually anyone can do. The problem is you pay for the materials and shipping. Do you think Ford charges it’s assembly line workers for the car parts? Another problem is the stuff they send you is junk and difficult to assemble. Finally when you send the results of your labor in they say your work isn’t good enough and refuse to pay. This after they claim you can make $500-$700 a week, and promise that if you’ve earned over $7000 they’ll mail a check immediately instead of at month end. Yeah, right.

If a jobsite does hand pick jobs to remove scams, that’s extraordinary and they deserve credit for it; if they can’t but claim they do, that’s dishonest and they deserve the credit for that too. More and more we’re finding sites that scream “look out for scams” and they’re scammers themselves. Such sites are loaded with assembly scams, and that should be a clue.

If you go looking for a job and are asked to pay for it, DON ‘T.

There are a growing number of online employment services that either specialize in telecommuting or have a special telecommuting section. But watch out, some of them are nothing more than scams.

Everything may seem like it’s on the up and up–reasonable salaries, professional website, even a warning to watch out for scams–but when we looked closely we spied something fishy going on.

Our first clue was that the website required you to pay to register. Now what sense does that make? If the site is in the business of finding good employees they can rent to employers, why would the block the road to success with a toll booth?

Other sites don’t charge to join or register, but they do charge a fee to cover their ‘administrative costs’. That’s total bull. All businesses have administrative costs, and those are paid by customers (employers) not employees. Remember, a temp agency charges employers for your work, say $25/hour, and they pay you, say $20/hr. That $5 an hour difference is supposed to cover their costs and also a bit more–that’s called profit.

Our second clue something wasn’t right with some sites was that they charge you before they even look at your resume. If they were serious about getting you work doncha think they’d might be interested in what you can do, even to the extent of testing you on things you claim you can do? ‘Real’ temp agencies certainly do. Temp agencies are very interested in qualified folks because their income depends on an on-going relationship with their clients, your potential employers. If they hire incompetent people their customers will be unhappy and look elsewhere.

The smoking gun clue, though, was the fact that these sites charge employers, their customers, a fee to register. Why would an employer pay a penny before they knew the company had qualified candidates for their job openings?

But don’t get the wrong idea, just because a site doesn’t charge a fee to join doesn’t mean it’s not a scam. The safest bet is to be sure you don’t pay a penny to get a job. Honest employers are happy to pay recruiting and training costs.

I’m working on a chapter about Medical Transcription for our forthcoming book about work at home jobs, Undress4Success. If the subtitle The Naked Truth About Working From Home was ever appropriate it’s here. There are oodles of nasty scams associated with the field, and the truth needs to be revealed.

Three-quarters of MTs work from home, and on the face of it, it seems like a job anyone with some typing skills could do. Trust me, it ain’t. But that doesn’t stop unscrupulous rip-off artists from preying on people who don’t know any better.

Several industry insiders have told us about one company they love to hate that they affectionately refer to as TransScam. Their concerns are backed up by website reports that describe a scam that goes something like this:

• You post your resume on one of the job sites such as monster.com and mention something about typing skills or anything to do with the medical profession.

• They send you an email saying how impressed they are with your background, and ask if you’d be willing to take a free medical transcription test. If you pass it, they say, they’ll pay for your training and guarantee you a work at home job. All you have to do is buy some piddly transcription software.

• You pass the test with flying colors, of course, and they rave about your potential. You’ll be rich!

• But you’re cautious, and ask if they’re legitimate. “Why of course, silly, we’re members of the Chamber of Commerce,” and email a logo. Now that is impressive, isn’t it?

• So you fork over 400 bucks for what turns out to be awful software, and they try to up-sell you on “professional” software and a foot pedal to make you more productive.

• But that stuff’s junk too, to so you ask for a refund.

• They say read the fine print, we don’t do refunds, have a nice day.

Still, if you have an affinity for language, are good at interpreting what you hear, can learn quickly, and can type about 100 words per minute you are a good candidate for a rewarding job as a medical transcriptionist. There are some very reputable schools, such as The Andrews School and CareerStep that in about six months can teach you what you need to know to make a go of it. And MTs are definitely in demand.

ANY school that you talk to should have the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) approval. But even if they do, do your homework; some companies claim to have accreditation, but it’s only from a phony made-up outfit of their own. Rummage around the web, and see what people have to say about the school you’re considering. If you can’t do that, you probably shouldn’t be thinking about being an MT anyway.

There are other renditions of this theme in every industry, so if your interested in finding a work at home job, in telecommuting, or freelance work look before you leap. In fact, if you want, leave a comment here about a company you’re interested in and we’ll check ‘em out.

If you work from home, freelance or telecommute you’re a likely target for a variety of fraud attempts so listen up.

Since you are a company of one–Exec, Admin, HR, Marketing, IT, Central Supply, and even the grounds keeper you have to make decisions about computers, telecommunications, banking and all the other facets of running a business that big companies spread over dozen, hundreds, and even sometimes thousands of people. So you’re a good target for people who want to take your money.

In fact, the FTC received over 800,000 complaints during calendar year 2007. Consumers reported fraud losses of over $1.2 billion (at an median amount of roughly $350 per person).

Shop-at-Home/Catalog Sales was the leading complaint category, so if you buy online (and you do) be sure you know who you’re dealing with. Internet Service rip-offs were the second largest category followed by Foreign Money Offers (those idiots just don’t give up do they), bogus Prizes/Sweepstakes and Lotteries, Computer Equipment and Software, and Internet Auctions (can you spell eBay?). Health Care, Travel, Vacations and Timeshare, Advance-Fee Loans and Credit Protection/Repair, Investments, and Magazines and Buyers Clubs fill out the list.

Wire transfer problems continue to increase. It used to be you could assume a cashiers check was good, but not any more. So wire transfers becomes the option of choice. But 28% of the consumers reported wire transfer as the payment method involved when they were scammed.

But here’s the (almost) bottom line: Half the fraud complaints where electronic mail related. We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again: if it’s spam it’s a scam.

Let’s be careful out there!