1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
What is a Medical Records Technician?
As a medical records technician, you will ensure the confidentiality and accuracy of patient records to support healthcare organizations and patients. You'll organize and maintain health information data. To do this, you must be familiar with the medical coding language and programs. You'll ensure medical records can be accessed in both printed and electronic forms. Furthermore, you'll update and maintain patients' medical information, including their medical history, charts, symptoms, tests, and treatments. Besides that, you'll monitor outcomes and organize data that may be made available to registries or clinical databases.
Most medical records technicians hold at least an associate's degree in health information management. Some employers prefer applicants with certifications, such as the Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT). Applicants can find employment at clinics, hospitals, doctor's offices, nursing care facilities, insurance companies, or public health organizations. Their annual salary ranges from $35,000 to $58,000 with an average of $44,719.
What Does a Medical Records Technician Do
Medical records and health information technicians, commonly referred to as health information technicians, organize and manage health information data by ensuring that it maintains its quality, accuracy, accessibility, and security in both paper files and electronic systems. They use various classification systems to code and categorize patient information for insurance reimbursement purposes, for databases and registries, and to maintain patients’ medical and treatment histories.
How To Become a Medical Records Technician
Health information technicians typically need a postsecondary certificate to enter the occupation, although some may need an associate’s degree. Certification is often required.
Medical Records Technician Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a medical records technician can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as medical coder, progress to a title such as office manager and then eventually end up with the title co-owner.
Medical Records Technician
Co-Owner
6 Years
Business Manager
6 Years
Patient Care Manager
5 Years
Clinical Manager
8 Years
Administrative Manager
6 Years
Unit Manager
6 Years
Show More
Average Salary for a Medical Records Technician
Medical Records Technicians in America make an average salary of $37,087 per year or $18 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $48,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $28,000 per year.
Average Medical Records Technician Salary
$37,087 Yearly$17.83 hourly
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Medical Records Technician
The role of a medical records technician includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general medical records technician responsibilities:
- Apply laws and regulations on the confidentiality of health information (e.g., privacy act, freedo of information act, health insurance portability
- Must perform assigned duties in a fast paced, fluid environment. Adaptability
- Abstracts pertinent information from patient records. Assigns the international classification of diseases, clinical modification (icd), current procedural terminology (cpt) or healthcare common procedure coding system (hcpcs) codes, creating ambulatory patient classification (apc) or diagnosis related group (drg) assignments. Obtains acceptable productivity/quality rates as defined per coding policy. Queries physicians when code assignments are not straightforward or documentation in the record is inadequate, ambiguous, or unclear for coding purposes. Keeps abreast of
There are several types of medical records technician, including:
Technician
Role:
To be a technician, you have to know your stuff. Some may refer to you as an expert in your field or maybe people will know you as skilled in an art or craft. Then again, you may just be needed to look after technical equipment.
Your workload as a technician will vary, depending on what you're trained in. You may be needed to set up a new computer system or maybe you'll need to fix an electricity problem. Either way, you'll probably only need to work 40 hours a week.
The degree of education required for this job depends on what you're specific skillset is. Some technicians only need a high school diploma, others may want to complete an associate's program or earn a certificate to help their employment opportunities. There's definitely something for everyone in the field of technicians.
- Average Salary: $38,045
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Medical Receptionist
Role:
Paging Dr. Fauci. As a medical receptionist, it's your job to make sure patients and visitors get to where they need to be. You also need to be able to provide information to people who call or walk in with questions.
While being knowledgeable is important in this position, memorizing might be even more important. If a patient comes in with an emergency, you need to be able to stay calm while figuring out exactly where they need to go. And some hospitals are pretty big, so that can be a difficult task.
The job requires you to have a high school diploma before you can get started. And it's useful to be a good communicator as well. You wouldn't want to accidentally send a patient with a broken arm to the pregnancy center. Unless, of course, that patient was also pregnant - but that's another story.
- Average Salary: $31,960
- Degree: Associate Degree
Medical Records Clerk
Role:
Medical record clerks are members of health care staff at hospitals and other medical facilities. They are responsible for dealing with the paperwork for these institutions creating, managing, and maintaining the documentation of patients' cases. They are also expected to assist during audits.
They gather and organize information such as medical records, examination results, admission, and discharge documents. They make sure nurses and other personnel have the necessary forms in stock, they digitalize existing paperwork, and ensure the confidentiality of the files.
This is a full-time job that requires previous experience. Medical clerks have to be familiar with medical terminology, and keen attention to detail is a must. Just like in the case of any administrative position, the use of MS Office and other information management programs is a basic requirement.
- Average Salary: $32,491
- Degree: Associate Degree
States With The Most Medical Records Technician Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active medical records technician jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where medical records technicians earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Average Salary: Job Openings:
Number Of Medical Records Technician Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 4,478 | $40,521 |
| 2 | Illinois | 2,496 | $37,916 |
| 3 | Georgia | 2,033 | $38,183 |
| 4 | Florida | 1,746 | $39,000 |
| 5 | Texas | 1,643 | $34,507 |
| 6 | Virginia | 1,423 | $37,858 |
| 7 | Minnesota | 1,408 | $35,586 |
| 8 | New York | 1,386 | $46,076 |
| 9 | Missouri | 1,255 | $39,484 |
| 10 | Pennsylvania | 1,109 | $43,700 |
| 11 | North Carolina | 1,037 | $33,864 |
| 12 | Ohio | 956 | $35,056 |
| 13 | New Jersey | 897 | $49,469 |
| 14 | Massachusetts | 889 | $38,695 |
| 15 | Kentucky | 783 | $31,957 |
| 16 | Alabama | 754 | $33,366 |
| 17 | Michigan | 685 | $36,668 |
| 18 | Kansas | 679 | $39,670 |
| 19 | Tennessee | 674 | $33,105 |
| 20 | Arizona | 648 | $39,572 |
| 21 | Indiana | 631 | $32,650 |
| 22 | Wisconsin | 597 | $40,502 |
| 23 | Washington | 553 | $38,861 |
| 24 | Maryland | 538 | $39,677 |
| 25 | Colorado | 525 | $34,371 |
| 26 | South Carolina | 503 | $36,454 |
| 27 | Arkansas | 481 | $32,534 |
| 28 | Nevada | 478 | $40,730 |
| 29 | New Mexico | 433 | $36,985 |
| 30 | Mississippi | 381 | $38,171 |
| 31 | Iowa | 381 | $33,524 |
| 32 | Connecticut | 375 | $41,924 |
| 33 | West Virginia | 347 | $38,004 |
| 34 | Idaho | 340 | $39,867 |
| 35 | Oregon | 323 | $41,158 |
| 36 | Oklahoma | 317 | $35,104 |
| 37 | Utah | 268 | $39,970 |
| 38 | Louisiana | 253 | $32,700 |
| 39 | Maine | 246 | $38,732 |
| 40 | Delaware | 231 | $43,937 |
| 41 | Nebraska | 225 | $33,842 |
| 42 | New Hampshire | 173 | $34,809 |
| 43 | North Dakota | 131 | $40,463 |
| 44 | Rhode Island | 128 | $43,100 |
| 45 | South Dakota | 119 | $35,145 |
| 46 | Alaska | 112 | $45,702 |
| 47 | Vermont | 109 | $44,279 |
| 48 | Montana | 99 | $39,267 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 73 | $39,885 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 58 | $38,264 |
Top Colleges for Medical Records Technicians
2. New York University
New York, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,828
Enrollment
26,339
3. Maria College of Albany
Albany, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$15,140
Enrollment
876
4. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
In-State Tuition
$26,756
Enrollment
6,166
5. University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA • Private
In-State Tuition
$17,653
Enrollment
16,405
6. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
7. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$18,454
Enrollment
40,108
8. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,309
Enrollment
9,142
9. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
10. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
Top Skills For a Medical Records Technician
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, 19.6% of medical records technicians listed patients on their resume, but soft skills such as integrity and analytical skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Medical Records Technician Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Medical Records Technician templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Medical Records Technician resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Medical Records Technician diversity
Medical Records Technician Gender Distribution
Female
81%
Male
19%
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among medical records technicians, 81.2% of them are women, while 18.8% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among medical records technicians is White, which makes up 59.3% of all medical records technicians.
- The most common foreign language among medical records technicians is Spanish at 71.9%.
Online Courses For Medical Records Technician That You May Like
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Best States For a Medical Records Technician
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a medical records technician. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, New York, Alaska, and Vermont. Medical records technicians make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $49,469. Whereas in New York and Alaska, they would average $46,076 and $45,702, respectively. While medical records technicians would only make an average of $44,279 in Vermont, 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. New Jersey
Total Medical Records Technician Jobs: 897
Highest 10% Earn:
$71,000
Location Quotient:
0.88
$49,469
Avg. Salary
2. Nevada
Total Medical Records Technician Jobs: 478
Highest 10% Earn:
$54,000
Location Quotient:
1.78
$40,730
Avg. Salary
3. Delaware
Total Medical Records Technician Jobs: 231
Highest 10% Earn:
$63,000
Location Quotient:
1.44
$43,937
Avg. Salary
How Do Medical Records Technicians Rate Their Jobs?
Top Medical Records Technician Employers
Most Common Employers For Medical Records Technician
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dell | $71,533 | $34.39 | 40 |
| 2 | STG International | $43,577 | $20.95 | 18 |
| 3 | PharMerica | $38,366 | $18.45 | 28 |
| 4 | USAF Police Alumni Association | $36,981 | $17.78 | 31 |
| 5 | Medical Record Associates | $36,813 | $17.70 | 47 |
| 6 | Omnicare | $36,663 | $17.63 | 59 |
| 7 | US Air Conditioning Distributors | $35,995 | $17.31 | 58 |
| 8 | Altegra Health | $35,804 | $17.21 | 163 |
| 9 | Episource | $35,540 | $17.09 | 87 |
| 10 | Kaiser Permanente | $35,297 | $16.97 | 19 |