How to Become a Medical Coder (Medical Field Guide)

Last Updated: April 24th, 2022 by Noah Shaw

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When patients seek medical care, they often undergo several different diagnostic and treatment procedures. As a medical coder, you’ll assign codes to each of those procedures so the bill the patient or their insurer receives is accurate.

This career guide will help you in your journey of learning how to become a medical coder. As you continue reading, you’ll discover what you’ll have to do to become a medical coder. You’ll also learn the daily responsibilities you can expect and the average salaries for this line of work.

Visit our Career Guide for a list of all our job insights for an in depth look at the new career path you are considering.

Job Description

As a medical coder, your responsibility is to assign codes to the medical diagnoses and procedures that patients experience. Accuracy is crucial when you assign those codes to comply with regulations by the government and insurance companies.

Your coding tasks will continue as patients undergo additional procedures. Throughout an average day, you’ll review patient charts so you can keep your codes up to date.

When any information is unclear, you’ll have to communicate with other stakeholders. That includes the patient’s healthcare providers and the billing specialists who use your codes to file claims with insurance providers.

Employers will expect you to be certified as a medical coder to work in this role. While college degrees aren’t compulsory, a degree in Healthcare Administration or similar will undoubtedly give you an advantage.

Read More: How to Become a Medical Scribe. Keep track of doctor-patient interactions as a Medical Scribe. Learn what it takes to pursue this career.

What Does an Average Day for a Medical Coder Look Like?

Let’s suppose you’re still on the fence about learning how to become a medical coder. One excellent way to decide if this career path is for you is by understanding what a coder does every day.

Here’s what an average day on the job will look like for you as a medical coder:

Review Patient Information

At the beginning of your day, you’ll start by reviewing any information related to current patients at your healthcare facility.

For example, you’ll read the charts of in-patients and ensure that their medical records have the correct codes.

That process can take quite some time since the medical codes can differ depending on the patient’s insurance provider.

Update Medical Records

Besides reviewing patient information, part of your day will include updating patients’ medical records.

You’ll keep those records up to date and ensure no mistakes. This part of your day is crucial for patients who file insurance claims, as the data will affect how much they’ll be charged.

Meet And Communicate With Stakeholders

As a medical coder, you won’t interact directly with patients.

However, you’ll interact with other stakeholders that include:

The patient’s care team which includes doctors, nurses, and specialists.
The healthcare facility’s administration.
The billing specialist that uses your medical codes to file claims with insurance companies.
The insurance companies that pay for patients’ healthcare.
Any other stakeholder involved in the patients’ insurance claim process.

The purpose of your interactions is to ensure that you have the most accurate information possible to do your job. Only then can you rest assured that the medical codes you’re assigning to the patient are correct.

As a result, the patient or their insurance provider will not be billed unnecessarily for procedures that might not have taken place.

Input Medical Codes

As the day goes on and patients continue receiving medical care, you’ll have to gather information and regularly input the correct medical codes into patient records.

The codes that healthcare facilities and insurance providers use can be different. Still, most of them will rely on widely recognized medical code classifications like:

International Classification of Diseases (10th edition, Clinically Modified)
International Classification of Diseases (10th edition, Procedural Coding System)
Current Procedural Terminology (CPT)
Health Care Procedural Coding System, Level II (HCPCS Level II).

As a medical coder, you must continually familiarize yourself with these different classifications to ensure that you can assign the correct codes regardless of who the patient’s insurers might be.

Check Medical Records For Coding Mistakes

The medical codes you prepare will be used by medical billers to file medical claims with insurance companies. That’s why those codes must be accurate at all times.

So, you’ll spend a significant part of your day reviewing medical records and checking for coding mistakes.

Whenever you find mistakes or inaccuracies, you’ll have to verify the information by checking the patient’s charts and records and consulting their healthcare providers.

That’s why, despite not being part of the patient’s care team, you must have a strong understanding of medical procedures and diagnoses. That knowledge will help you understand the medical documents that you review for your work as a coder.

Read More: How to Become a Dermatologist Assistant. See what it takes to land this career and if it’s right for you!

Process for Becoming a Medical Coder

Unlike most other roles in the healthcare industry, learning how to become a medical coder won’t require you to spend many years in medical school.

Instead, here’s what the process will look like in your journey to become a medical coder.

1. Start Preparing in High School

Let’s suppose you’re still in high school. In that case, you can get a head start on your medical coder career by taking specific high school courses.

Remember: as a medical coder, you’ll be working in the healthcare industry. So even though you won’t be interacting with patients directly, your coding work will still involve lots of medical terminologies.

Some of the high school courses that’ll be useful for your career include:

Biology
Physics and chemistry
Math
English

Mastering these subjects early will help you in the long run, especially when you start to learn about the healthcare industry and your future role as a medical coder.

2. Get a College Degree

Getting a bachelor’s or associate’s degree might not be required by all employers. However, you’ll undoubtedly give yourself an advantage by pursuing a related degree in college.

Medical coders tend to take degree courses like:

Healthcare administration
Health information management
Business
And others

By taking these kinds of college courses, you’ll gain a ‘big picture’ understanding of the healthcare industry. That will also help you understand how your role as a medical coder fits in that industry, alongside other healthcare professionals.

3. Pursue a Medical Coder Certification

One of the most critical steps you must take to become a medical coder is becoming certified.

In many cases, employers will consider you based on your certification first before considering your college education.

It’s also important to know that some employers will hire you even before achieving your medical coder certification. Still, whether it’s sooner or later, your certificate will be crucial for landing a job as a medical coder.

Some of the medical coder certifications you can pursue are:

Gaining certification will benefit you in several ways. Firstly, it equips you with the precise knowledge and skills that you’ll need to succeed as a medical coder.

Besides that, having a certification will also demonstrate to your employers and colleagues that you are a professional trained specifically for the medical coder role.

4. (Optional) Pursue Additional Certifications

Once you’ve started your career as a certified medical coder, you also have the option of pursuing additional certifications.

Doing that will also help you decide which area of medical coding in which you’d like to become a specialist.

For example, you can choose to become a dermatology coder or a coder in almost any other area of healthcare.

5. (Optional) Further Your Studies

Last but not least, you also have the option of furthering your studies. For example, having a Master’s degree in Healthcare Management would be a great asset to have if you’re working towards a management role with your employer.

Find A Medical Coder Job Near You!

Are You Suited for a Medical Coder Career? Skills, Credentials, Tools, and Technology

An essential part of learning how to become a medical coder is to equip yourself with the necessary personality traits, skills, and proficiencies to succeed in the role.

Here are the ones that are important for you and anyone else wanting to become a medical coder.

Personality and Skills

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) lists analytical skills, detail-oriented skills, and a strong sense of integrity as essential qualities for the medical coder role.

As a medical coder, your responsibility is to update patient medical records for billing and treatment purposes. Therefore, you’ll have plenty of information in front of you that will require strong analytical skills for you to understand thoroughly.

Besides that, you have to keep track of plenty of minute details when updating those patient records. So, being detail-oriented is crucial for this role.

Lastly, since your coding work will affect medical billing. So, you must have a strong sense of integrity to ensure you bill the patient or their insurance company accurately.

Credentials and Proficiencies

As a medical coder, you’ll be updating patient records despite not being part of their care team. So, you must have a very deep understanding of medical terminology. Understanding the terms doctors and nurses use will ensure you do your coding work accurately.

The Occupational Information Network (O*Net) also adds that proficiency in using medical software for coding purposes and document management software is also essential.

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities rely heavily on computers these days. So, you can expect to use those kinds of software to perform your coding tasks every day on the job.

How Does a Medical Coder Find Work?

While learning how to become a medical coder, you can start planning where you’d like to look for your first job. That way, you’ll hit the ground running when you begin your job search.

According to the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), coders like you can find work in places like:

Hospitals, physician offices, and other medical facilities
Assisted living facilities long-term care facilities
Home health agencies
Hospices
And others

Interestingly, you can also find work as a coder in medical companies that don’t provide direct patient care.

A few of the examples provided by the AAPC include:

Billing companies
Healthcare consulting firms
Law offices
Insurance companies
And others

When searching for a job, you can start by looking for healthcare providers and companies in your local area.

Then, you can browse their official websites and check their careers pages for available job openings.

Even if there aren’t any job openings currently, you can contact the company directly and ask to submit your resume or CV. That way, they’ll have your details on file when medical coder jobs become available again.

Find A Medical Coder Job Near You!

What Is the Average Salary of a Medical Coder?

Learning how to become a medical coder will require time and resources on your part. So, you’ll want to know how much you can expect to earn in this role.

According to the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), medical coders make an average of $54,797 a year. However, they break that information down further to show that:

Medical coders without certification earn an average of $47,200 a year
Medical coders with certification earn an average of $60,097 a year.

Where Do Medical Coders Earn the Most?

The AAPC also finds that the highest paying state for medical coders is the District of Columbia ($70,843 a year).

A few other high paying states for medical coders include:

Massachusetts: $67,260 a year
Hawaii: $66,902 a year
California: $66,224 a year
Maryland: $66,310 a year

How Can I Make More Money as a Medical Coder?

The 2 best ways to increase your earning potential as a medical coder is to:

Pursue certifications: You can pursue several professional credentials as a medical coder. Firstly, certifications equip you with more substantial knowledge and skills for your role. At the same time, they help other people recognize your coding abilities.
Specialize: The medical field is vast. So, instead of being a general medical coder, you can specialize in serving different medical departments. For instance, you can be a radiology or dermatology coder, among many other specializations.

Of course, you can also increase your salary by negotiating with your current or future employers.

Plus, if relocating is an option, you can choose to work for companies in states where the average medical coder salary is higher. You can do that by physically relocating to those states or getting a remote job with companies in those higher-paying locations.

Medical Coder Job Growth

Before deciding to learn how to become a medical coder, it’s essential to see if the industry will grow in the foreseeable future.

Data by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that you can expect a 9% job growth for medical coders from 2020 to 2030. The BLS considers that the growth rate is ‘as fast as average.’

That’s excellent news because it means there will be more jobs for medical coders in the future.

Still, you can choose to stand out from your peers by selecting one or more specializations as a medical coder.

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Top 5 Specializations for Medical Coders

Here are the top 5 specializations for medical coders:

Radiology Coder

As a radiology coder, you’ll specialize in coding for procedures carried out in radiology departments. That’s where patients go to get imaging done for their medical conditions, such as x-rays, CT scans, and more.

Rheumatology Coder

The rheumatology department specializes in treating patients with musculoskeletal problems. By specializing as a rheumatology coder, you’ll develop a deeper knowledge of updating records in these departments.

Cardiovascular and Thoracic Coder

As a specialist in this area, you’ll focus on documenting medical treatments on the heart, lungs, and thorax.

Chiropractic Coder

Chiropractic offices these days also require coders to administer data management for chiropractic treatments. For example, you’ll code the examinations, diagnoses, and treatments chiropractors administer to patients.

Dermatology Coder

Dermatologists focus on treating skin disorders. As a coder specializing in this area, you’ll maintain patient records with information on treatments like skin biopsies and surgeries.