How To Become An Insurance Coder: What It Is and Career Path

What is an insurance 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 insurance coder. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.43 an hour? That's $34,166 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -38,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreInsurance CoderUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,166

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.2

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.80%

Asian 6.77%

Black or African American 9.58%

Hispanic or Latino 21.74%

Unknown 4.09%

White 57.02%

Gender

female 91.09%

male 8.91%

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 an insurance coder

Explore insurance coder education requirements

Most common insurance coder degrees

Associate

33.3 %

Diploma

24.6 %

High School Diploma

19.3 %

Start to develop specific insurance coder skills

Skills	Percentages
Medical Terminology	32.91%
Billing System	15.01%
Procedure Codes	6.31%
Data Entry	4.76%
Medical Billing	4.75%

Complete relevant insurance coder training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New insurance 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 insurance coder based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real insurance coder resumes.

Research insurance coder duties and responsibilities

Manage all aspects of AR including writing letters for medical necessity, claim denials, bundling issues and charge capture.
Refile denied claim through Medicaid website AlPortal.
Post payments from commercial insurance companies, medicare, medicaid, and personal payments.
Review patients' medical records and clinical documentation to determine diagnoses and procedures.

Prepare your insurance coder resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your insurance 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 insurance 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 insurance coder resume templates

Build a professional insurance 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 insurance coder resume.