How To Become A Billing Coder: What It Is and Career Path

What is a billing coder and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Billing coders work in medical offices and mediate between healthcare institutions and insurance companies. They submit and follow up on insurance claims, issue invoices, and process payments. They are responsible for coding diagnoses, treatments, and services.

You will correct rejected claims, follow the progress of payments, and keep in contact with patients and the insurance companies to settle outstanding payments. You will work in an office performing administrative tasks, organizing documents, updating and reviewing data.

Specialized education is not required for this position, but you have to be familiar with medical terminology and have good numerical skills to calculate billing amounts and payment plan installments. You will work with computers a lot, so knowing your way around the MS Office suite will be important and you will probably use specialized medical software to carry out your tasks. The average annual salary you can learn in this position is $36,000.

ScoreBilling CoderUS Average

Salary

2.9

Avg. Salary $37,554

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.2

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.84%

Asian 6.82%

Black or African American 11.06%

Hispanic or Latino 20.87%

Unknown 4.26%

White 56.15%

Gender

female 91.24%

male 8.76%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress level

6.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.5

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.6

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a billing coder

Explore billing coder education requirements

Most common billing coder degrees

Associate

32.5 %

Certificate

19.4 %

Bachelor's

17.4 %

Start to develop specific billing coder skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	17.92%
ICD-10	8.50%
Data Entry	6.67%
Medical Terminology	5.49%
Home Health	5.09%

Complete relevant billing coder training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New billing coders learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a billing coder based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real billing coder resumes.

Gain additional billing coder certifications

Billing coder certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific billing coder certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for billing coders include Certified Billing and Coding Specialist (CBCS) and Certified Professional Coder (CPC).

More About Certifications

Research billing coder duties and responsibilities

Accept and process healthcare claims and confidential medical records; verify patient eligibility and manage the Medicare and Medicaid billing process.
Review documentation to assign or confirm E/M, CPT, HCPCS, modifiers and ICD-9 codes.
Process insurance claims to various carriers like Medicare, Medicaid, commercial, and private insurances.
Verify patient insurance and/or Medicaid eligibility status and produce 'no insurance' letters for non establish patients.

Prepare your billing coder resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your billing coder resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a billing coder resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable billing coder resume templates

Build a professional billing coder resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your billing coder resume.