Certified professional coder vs medical coding technician

The differences between certified professional coders and medical coding technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a certified professional coder and a medical coding technician. Additionally, a certified professional coder has an average salary of $52,683, which is higher than the $35,307 average annual salary of a medical coding technician.

The top three skills for a certified professional coder include CPC, medical terminology and AAPC. The most important skills for a medical coding technician are medical billing, data entry, and front desk.

Certified professional coder vs medical coding technician overview

	Certified Professional Coder	Medical Coding Technician
Yearly salary	$52,683	$35,307
Hourly rate	$25.33	$16.97
Growth rate	11%	11%
Number of jobs	86,465	67,197
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 34%	Associate Degree, 30%
Average age	45	45
Years of experience	12	12

What does a certified professional coder do?

A certified professional coder oversees the daily medical coding operations of a medical facility, ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations. They usually have the responsibility to provide coding to facilities, update databases, and conduct reviews and assessments to identify missing details or inconsistencies and perform corrective measures. Moreover, as a certified professional coder, it is essential to coordinate with external parties such as insurance providers and communicate with patients, assisting them by answering inquiries, explaining procedures, and solving issues and concerns if any would arise.

What does a medical coding technician do?

The job of a medical coding technician is to assist in the management of insurance claims, payments, and invoices. Your day-to-day duties may include reviewing claims data to ensure that the assigned codes meet the insurance and legal rules, understanding the diagnosis of patients and medical procedures that have been performed, and extracting information from documentation such as the name of the physician and the date of the procedure. Additionally, abmedical coding technician also follows up with patients and insurance firms regarding outstanding bills.

Certified professional coder vs medical coding technician salary

Certified professional coders and medical coding technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Certified Professional Coder	Medical Coding Technician
Average salary	$52,683	$35,307
Salary range	Between $38,000 And $73,000	Between $28,000 And $43,000
Highest paying City	Baltimore, MD	-
Highest paying state	Alaska	-
Best paying company	Morgan Stanley	-
Best paying industry	Technology	-

Differences between certified professional coder and medical coding technician education

There are a few differences between a certified professional coder and a medical coding technician in terms of educational background:

	Certified Professional Coder	Medical Coding Technician
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 34%	Associate Degree, 30%
Most common major	Health Care Administration	Health Care Administration
Most common college	Stanford University	University of Pennsylvania

Certified professional coder vs medical coding technician demographics

Here are the differences between certified professional coders' and medical coding technicians' demographics:

	Certified Professional Coder	Medical Coding Technician
Average age	45	45
Gender ratio	Male, 8.9% Female, 91.1%	Male, 15.3% Female, 84.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 14.8% Asian, 8.3% White, 62.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.6%	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 17.1% Asian, 8.6% White, 59.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between certified professional coder and medical coding technician duties and responsibilities

Certified professional coder example responsibilities.

Manage the outsourced transcription company.
Apply ICD-10-CM, CPT-4 codes and modifiers in accordance with federal regulations.
Validate DRG's for inpatient and inpatient RAC appeals as well as validating DRG changes.
Assist with insurance verification and registration, including Medicare and Medicaid.
Review, analyze, and code all ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM diagnoses.
Work all age reports for all Medicaid.

Medical coding technician example responsibilities.

Manage health records while applying ICD-10 coding to update and process insurance claims for time and accuracy to various insurance companies.
Assign appropriate ICD-9-CM and CPT-4 codes in compliance with recognize coding principles and department policies.
Remain current on medical coding guidelines and HIPAA laws and regulations.
Reconcile clinical notes, patient encounter form, and health information for compliance with HIPAA rules.
Audit ROI program quarterly to ensure deadlines are completed and proper procedures for legal and personal requests are followed.
Train team members in all ROI processes, make independent decisions base on the provisions of these privacy laws and regulations.

Certified professional coder vs medical coding technician skills

Common certified professional coder skills

CPC, 20%
Medical Terminology, 9%
AAPC, 8%
Patients, 7%
ICD-10-CM, 5%
E/M, 4%

Common medical coding technician skills

Medical Billing, 14%
Data Entry, 12%
Front Desk, 10%
CPC, 9%
ICD-10-CM, 7%
Transcription, 6%

Certified Professional Coder vs. similar jobs

Certified Professional Coder related careers

Certified Professional Coder related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Healthcare Practitioner and Technical Industry
Certified Professional Coder
Certified Professional Coder vs Medical Coding Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse healthcare practitioner and technical jobs