How To Become An Icd-9 Coder: What It Is and Career Path

What is an icd-9 coder and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an icd-9 coder. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.04 an hour? That's $52,080 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 23,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreIcd-9 CoderUS Average

Salary

4.1

Avg. Salary $52,080

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.8

Growth rate 11%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.32%

Asian 9.79%

Black or African American 8.60%

Hispanic or Latino 14.66%

Unknown 4.29%

White 61.34%

Gender

female 91.41%

male 8.59%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.0

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.6

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an icd-9 coder

Explore icd-9 coder education requirements

Most common icd-9 coder degrees

Associate

40.0 %

Bachelor's

26.7 %

Diploma

10.7 %

Start to develop specific icd-9 coder skills

Skills	Percentages
Medical Terminology	21.69%
ICD-10-CM	18.44%
Clinical Documentation	12.84%
Procedure Codes	10.87%
DRG	9.27%

Complete relevant icd-9 coder training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New icd-9 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 an icd-9 coder based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real icd-9 coder resumes.

Research icd-9 coder duties and responsibilities

Manage the outsourced transcription company.
Assist the surgery scheduler with proper codes for precertifications and correct diagnosis codes as well.
Schedule follow up appointments or surgery for patient.
Determine inefficiencies and discrepancies within the EHR system.

Prepare your icd-9 coder resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your icd-9 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 an icd-9 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 icd-9 coder resume templates

Build a professional icd-9 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 icd-9 coder resume.