The primary responsibility of a medical coder is to take a health care patient's file and translate the procedures and diagnoses into numerical codes. The codes they assign will determine how much a doctor or hospital is reimbursed for their services. Medical coders assign the proper numeric code to each of the procedures and diagnosis using software to determine how much a hospital or doctor will be reimbursed.
Medical coders may need to learn a variety of coding system software programs in order to classify several categories of patients, such as those used for Medicare, long-term care, physician offices, or ambulatory settings.
The minimum education requirement for a mecial coder is a high school diploma or GED. Some employers may prefer to hire if the applicant holds a professional credential, and one may be offered higher wages than an uncertified medical coder. The reported average annual salary for a medical coder is approximately $29,000-59,000. However, this figure can vary significantly depending upon academic qualification, having previous experience, and possession of the aforementioned skills. An optional certification is also available after obtaining experience in the role.
Medical Coder Overview
Medical Coder Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a medical coder. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.03 an hour? That's $41,657 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 23,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Medical Coder Do
There are certain skills that many medical coders have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, detail oriented and integrity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a medical coder, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.3% of medical coders included medical records, while 10.4% of resumes included cpc, and 6.8% of resumes included icd-10-cm. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the medical coder job title. But what industry to start with? Most medical coders actually find jobs in the health care and professional industries.
How To Become a Medical Coder
If you're interested in becoming a medical coder, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 22.0% of medical coders have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.0% of medical coders have master's degrees. Even though some medical coders have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a medical coder. When we researched the most common majors for a medical coder, we found that they most commonly earn associate degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on medical coder resumes include high school diploma degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a medical coder. In fact, many medical coder jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many medical coders also have previous career experience in roles such as medical biller coder or billing specialist.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Medical Coder Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of office manager you might progress to a role such as case manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title nursing director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Medical Coder
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Bayada Medicare Coder, Remote Medicare Coder, Remote | Bayada Bayada | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $57,00003/31/2021 $57,000 |
Bayada Medicare Coder, Remote Medicare Coder, Remote | Bayada Bayada | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $57,00003/31/2021 $57,000 |
Bayada Clinical Coder, Remote Clinical Coder, Remote | Bayada Bayada | 03/31/2021 03/31/2021 | $60,00003/31/2021 $60,000 |
City of Norfolk, Va Codes Specialist, Senior (Structural) Codes Specialist, Senior (Structural) | City of Norfolk, Va City of Norfolk, Va | 03/28/2021 03/28/2021 | $40,80503/28/2021 $40,805 |
Progressive Medical Coder Medical Coder | Progressive Progressive | 03/26/2021 03/26/2021 | $36,00003/26/2021 $36,000 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Medical Coder Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Medical Coder. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Medical Coder Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Medical Coder resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Medical Coders
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
2. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
3. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
5. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
6. Yale University
New Haven, CT • Private
7. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
8. Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH • Private
9. University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA • Public
10. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
Top Skills For a Medical Coder
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.3% of medical coders listed medical records on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and detail oriented are important as well.
- Medical Records, 15.3%
- CPC, 10.4%
- Icd-10-Cm, 6.8%
- Facility, 6.3%
- Ahima, 6.2%
- Other Skills, 55.0% See All Medical Coder Skills
Best States For a Medical Coder
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a medical coder. The best states for people in this position are Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and California. Medical coders make the most in Oregon with an average salary of $55,808. Whereas in Washington and Vermont, they would average $54,615 and $53,940, respectively. While medical coders would only make an average of $53,833 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Oregon
$55,808
Avg. Salary
2. California
$53,833
Avg. Salary
3. New Mexico
$45,074
Avg. Salary
How Do Medical Coder Rate Their Jobs?
Top Medical Coder Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ medical coders and discovered their number of medical coder opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that McKesson was the best, especially with an average salary of $62,031. TeamHealth follows up with an average salary of $60,254, and then comes Robert Half International with an average of $39,832. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a medical coder. The employers include Aspirus, University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Mercy Health
Medical Coder Videos
