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A medical records technician is responsible for performing administrative duties, handling patients' medical records for medical purposes. Medical records technicians keep an organized database of patients' information, including medical history, diagnosis, healthcare treatments, laboratory schedules, and insurance details using specific healthcare coding procedures. Medical records technicians must be detail-oriented and highly organizational, especially on maintaining the accuracy and confidentiality of patients' information. This job is critical in the healthcare industry for the doctors' reference and determining treatment costs.

Medical Records Technician Responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real medical records technician resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

  • Enter all patient in-take into EMR, manage triage, scheduling, and maintain a sterile clinic setting.
  • Manage medical treatment authorizations and durable medical equipment (DME) requests and verify medical eligibility for all patients requesting treatment.
  • Perform examinations in the ER, main radiology area and surgery.
  • Order medical records for patients, medical staff, outside entities, and court subpoenas for certain dates of services.
  • Audited/Validate daily outpatient medical coding accounts involving emergency rooms, surgery, interventional radiology, radiology, and ancillary services.
  • Staff education on EMR and industry regulations.
  • Perform record audits on over 1,500 USAF medical records.
  • Code with ICD-9 and CPT-4 of inpatient and outpatient records
  • Interpret medical reports to apply appropriate ICD-9 and CPT-4 codes.
  • Attend notary sessions to sign and date approve documents previous review.
  • Assist with QA and paper medical file pulling for the MedSurg dept.
  • Perform EKG's and EEG's on both impatient and outpatient procedures.
  • Scan, index, and QA all types of medical records into patient accounts.
  • Train and assist couriers in picking up medical records, verifying records with surgery schedules.
  • Used EMR: PowerChart, NextGen and Cerner systems to facilitate work load and other processes.

Medical Records Technician Skills and Personality Traits

We calculated that 20% of Medical Records Technicians are proficient in Patients, Medical Terminology, and HIPAA. They’re also known for soft skills such as Integrity, Analytical skills, and Detail oriented.

We break down the percentage of Medical Records Technicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Patients, 20%

    Managed medical treatment authorizations and durable medical equipment (DME) requests and verified medical eligibility for all patients requesting treatment.

  • Medical Terminology, 11%

    Complete understanding of disease processes, anatomy and physiology, and medical terminology required to assign accurate numerical and alphanumeric codes.

  • HIPAA, 6%

    Assisted Psychiatric Emergency Services with time-sensitive and confidential health information while adhering to governmental HIPAA rules and regulations.

  • Patient Care, 5%

    Reconcile lab results and other unmatched electronic medical or dental care information and ensure information is moved into patient care records.

  • Customer Service, 5%

    Answered phones and provided customer service, scanned and/or imported medical documents and electronically filed in patients chart.

  • Medical Facilities, 4%

    Informed patients, insurance companies, social services and other medical facilities on policies associated with releasing medical information.

Some of the skills we found on medical records technician resumes included "patients," "medical terminology," and "hipaa." We have detailed the most important medical records technician responsibilities below.

  • Integrity can be considered to be the most important personality trait for a medical records technician to have. According to a medical records technician resume, "health information technicians work with patient data that are required, by law, to be kept confidential" medical records technicians are able to use integrity in the following example we gathered from a resume: "trusted as a medical records technician for a large medical practice, while upholding government required hippa privacy laws. "
  • Another commonly found skill for being able to perform medical records technician duties is the following: analytical skills. According to a medical records technician resume, "health information technicians must understand and follow medical records and diagnoses, and then decide how best to code them in a patient’s medical records." Check out this example of how medical records technicians use analytical skills: "provide data entry by entering patient and contributor demographic information into the pathology information management system, under a production-oriented environment. "
  • Detail oriented is also an important skill for medical records technicians to have. This example of how medical records technicians use this skill comes from a medical records technician resume, "health information technicians must be accurate when recording and coding patient information." Read this excerpt from a resume to understand how vital it is to their everyday roles and responsibilities, "detail oriented, data entry, customer service and able to work independently and with no supervision. "
  • A thorough review of lots of resumes revealed to us that "interpersonal skills" is important to completing medical records technician responsibilities. This resume example shows just one way medical records technicians use this skill: "health information technicians need to be able to discuss patient information, discrepancies, and data requirements with other professionals such as physicians and finance personnel." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical medical records technician tasks: "skilled at setting work priorities and meeting deadlines.customer service, clerical skills and interpersonal skills within the healthcare industry. "
  • Yet another important skill that a medical records technician must demonstrate is "technical skills." Health information technicians must use coding and classification software and the electronic health record (ehr) system that their healthcare organization or physician practice has adopted. This is clearly demonstrated in this example from a medical records technician who stated: "prepare and oversee the timely release of documentations such as technical reports, charts and other documents that includes medical terminology. "
  • See the full list of medical records technician skills.

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    What Information Management Specialists Do

    An information management specialist is responsible for maintaining the security benchmark of all databases across the organization to support business functions and client requirements. Information management specialists sort and file data on the network systems and pull up reports from the storage database. They also analyze project management plans and utilize data tools to identify solutions and collect critical information. An information management specialist handles data management system troubleshooting and provide resolution reports to avoid downtime reoccurrence.

    In this section, we take a look at the annual salaries of other professions. Take information management specialist for example. On average, the information management specialists annual salary is $17,428 higher than what medical records technicians make on average every year.

    While their salaries may differ, one common ground between medical records technicians and information management specialists are a few of the skills required in each craft. In both careers, employees bring forth skills like patients, medical terminology, and hipaa.

    These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. A medical records technician responsibility is more likely to require skills like "medical facilities," "excellent interpersonal," "hcpcs," and "provides technical support." Whereas a information management specialist requires skills like "cycle management," "phone calls," "windows," and "transcription." Just by understanding these different skills you can see how different these careers are.

    Information management specialists receive the highest salaries in the technology industry coming in with an average yearly salary of $66,785. But medical records technicians are paid more in the government industry with an average salary of $40,715.

    On average, information management specialists reach higher levels of education than medical records technicians. Information management specialists are 6.0% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

    What Are The Duties Of a Health Care Administrator?

    A health care administrator is primarily in charge of overseeing the daily administrative operations of medical and health care facilities. They are responsible for setting objectives, establishing guidelines and employee schedules, maintaining accurate records, gathering and analyzing data, developing strategies to optimize operations, and coordinating with nurses, physicians, patients, and other health care experts. Moreover, as a health care administrator, it is essential to address and resolve issues and concerns, implement the facility's policies and regulations, and ensure that procedures comply with health care laws and standards.

    The next role we're going to look at is the health care administrator profession. Typically, this position earns a higher pay. In fact, they earn a $31,100 higher salary than medical records technicians per year.

    Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Medical records technicians and health care administrators both include similar skills like "patients," "hipaa," and "patient care" on their resumes.

    While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that medical records technician responsibilities requires skills like "medical terminology," "customer service," "medical facilities," and "medical charts." But a health care administrator might use skills, such as, "health care services," "home health," "mental health," and "vital signs."

    On average, health care administrators earn a higher salary than medical records technicians. There are industries that support higher salaries in each profession respectively. Interestingly enough, health care administrators earn the most pay in the professional industry with an average salary of $71,258. Whereas, medical records technicians have higher paychecks in the government industry where they earn an average of $40,715.

    When it comes to the differences in education between the two professions, health care administrators tend to reach higher levels of education than medical records technicians. In fact, they're 6.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

    How a Release Of Information Specialist Compares

    A release of information specialist is primarily in charge of retrieving and releasing data to qualified recipients while adhering to the guidelines and confidentiality protocols that aim to protect sensitive information. Although the extent of their responsibilities usually depends on their industry or company of employment, it usually includes maintaining records of procedures and transactions, preparing and processing documents, organizing files, producing progress reports to managers, and keeping an eye out for any inconsistencies, resolving them promptly and efficiently.

    The release of information specialist profession generally makes a higher amount of money when compared to the average salary of medical records technicians. The difference in salaries is releases of information specialist making $8,804 higher than medical records technicians.

    Using medical records technicians and releases of information specialist resumes, we found that both professions have similar skills such as "patients," "medical terminology," and "hipaa," but the other skills required are very different.

    There are many key differences between these two careers as shown by resumes from each profession. Some of those differences include the skills required to complete responsibilities within each role. As an example of this, a medical records technician is likely to be skilled in "cpt," "excellent interpersonal," "hcpcs," and "provides technical support," while a typical release of information specialist is skilled in "phone calls," "quality checks," "federal regulations," and "quality products."

    Additionally, releases of information specialist earn a higher salary in the insurance industry compared to other industries. In this industry, they receive an average salary of $51,336. Additionally, medical records technicians earn an average salary of $40,715 in the government industry.

    When it comes to education, releases of information specialist tend to earn similar education levels than medical records technicians. In fact, they're 0.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

    Description Of a Reimbursement Specialist

    A reimbursement specialist is responsible for analyzing insurance documents, processing reimbursement claims, and releasing accurate billing statements for insurance claims. Reimbursement specialists must have excellent analytical skills, especially on performing clerical tasks to evaluate insurance cases, investigate cases, and update the account information of the clients on the database. They should also have impeccable communication skills and understanding of the insurance processes to be able to coordinate with the clients, explaining the procedures of their claims accurately, and coordinate with the insurance management to improve the claims processes.

    The fourth career we look at typically earns higher pay than medical records technicians. On average, reimbursement specialists earn a difference of $1,186 higher per year.

    While both medical records technicians and reimbursement specialists complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like patients, medical terminology, and hipaa, the two careers also vary in other skills.

    Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a medical records technician might have more use for skills like "patient care," "medical facilities," "medical charts," and "excellent interpersonal." Meanwhile, some reimbursement specialists might include skills like "appeals," "medicare," "patient accounts," and "home health" on their resume.

    Reimbursement specialists earn a higher salary in the pharmaceutical industry with an average of $41,366. Whereas, medical records technicians earn the highest salary in the government industry.

    The average resume of reimbursement specialists showed that they earn similar levels of education to medical records technicians. So much so that the likelihood of them earning a Master's Degree is 1.9% more. Additionally, they're more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.1%.