Thursday, 8 May 2025

What are common abbreviations used in medical billing?

For those who are interested in going for medical billing and coding classes online, it is imperative to have a grasp of some of the most frequently used acronyms. They are commonly incorporated in patient charts, insurance claims and related documents to constitute an essential part of your learning process.

Unfortunately, there are hundreds of initialisms used daily in medical billing, and in the absence of complete comprehensiveness, some of them include the following:


1. CPT – Current Procedural Terminology

   Refers to the description of medical, surgical, and diagnostic services pertaining to billing.

2. ICD – International Classification of Disease

   Offers codes for the diagnoses and health conditions.

3. HCPCS – Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System

   It is mainly paid for form of services that are not codified under CPT, for instance, ambulances and medical equipments.

4. EOB – Explanation of Benefits

   A prescription from the insurance company detailing what a particular plan entailed.

5. NPI – National Provider Identifier

   Also known as a National Provider Identifier number, this is a one-time number used in all billing undertaken by healthcare providers.

6. CMS – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

   Several laws governing healthcare billing are implemented by this federal agency.

7. POS – Place of Service

   Alphabetic characters specifying where a specific service was rendered such as a hospital or a clinic.

8. HMO/PPO: Health Maintenance Organization / Preferred Provider Organization

   When it comes to billing, it is important to consider the insurance plans that affect it, which include the following:

9. DOS – Date of Service

   As part of the demographics data, it contains the date the patient received the service.

10. COB – Coordination of Benefits

    This refers to how the insurance companies work, especially when the patient has several coverages with different insurance companies.


In medical billing and coding classes online, often practicing with these terms can boost your self-assuredness and accuracy when it comes to the reimbursement side of health care. So, no matter if you are a beginner or revisiting, mastering abbreviations is one of the initial measures to entrench oneself in the job of medical billing. 

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What are common abbreviations used in medical billing?

For those who are interested in going for medical billing and coding classes online, it is imperative to have a grasp of some of the most f...