Medical coding and billing is a crucial part of every medical practice and becoming a medical coder is a stable career choice with many career options. Medical billers and coders are in high demand.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that medical billing and coding jobs are projected to grow at a rate of 8% from 2022 to 2032, faster than the average for all occupations.
What is Medical Coding and Billing?
Medical coders assign codes to patients' medical diagnoses and procedures. Those codes are then used by the medical biller to bill patients and insurance companies.
Medical billing professionals are the liaisons between health insurance companies and healthcare facilities. They create health insurance claims and collect the funds.
In smaller offices, the same person often handles both coding and billing.
Medical coders can work in a variety of locations and specialties, including doctors' offices, hospitals, pharmacies, and insurance companies.
Medical coders and billers can work in an office as an employee or work from home. Medical coding and billing jobs can be salaried or contract positions. Many work from home as independent contractors.
You can get medical coding jobs from hospitals, physician offices, insurance companies, home health agencies, and a variety of other places that provide medical services.
The companies mentioned below regularly hire medical coders. Some have both work-from-home and salaried positions.
How much do medical coders and billers make?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics mentions an average income of $46,660 per year or $22.43 per hour.
They also mention on their website that the outlook for medical records and health information specialists is projected to grow at a rate of 8% from 2022 to 2032, faster than the average for all occupations.
About 15,000 openings for medical records specialists are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
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How to Get Started in Medical Coding
To get medical coding and billing jobs, most employers require that you have a certification through the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) or the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).
The most important certifications are the CPC and CCS coding credentials. Many coding jobs ask for specific medical specialties and require a minimum of two to three years of coding within their specialty.
You may want to obtain one or both coding certifications. Consider your interest, experience, and whom you want to work for when choosing which credential you want to get.
The CPC (Certified Professional Coder) credential is awarded by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC). You can find details on the AAPC website. Physicians, private practices, emergency medicine, and other outpatient services require a CPC credential that is referred to as “professional” coding.
The CCS credential (Certified Coding Specialist) is awarded by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). In-patient coding or “facility” coding is used by hospitals and requires a CCS credential.
You have to get good training, pass the exam, and get the certification and then you can start to build experience and work your way up. If your goal is to get medical billing jobs from home, you may have to be willing to work in a medical office for a couple of years before being able to do so but eventually, you'll be able to work from home in medical billing.
A good school such as CareerStep prepares students for the certification exams.
You can be trained as a medical coder and be career-ready with CareerSteps’ Medical Billing program in as little as three months.
How to Get Medical Coding Experience
- The first step is to choose a school that has a good reputation with industry leaders and has job placement connections. For example, CareerStep has partnered with RCM Health Care Services, a premier provider of staffing solutions for over 400 healthcare institutions to give you more job placement opportunities.
- Another option to get some coding experience is to do a non-paid extern program (like a project extern through the AAPC).
Companies that hire medical coders
Below is a list of companies that hire medical coders. Many hire freelance medical coders working from home.
Applicants usually must have relevant certification through either AAPC or AHIMA. Some of these companies require one to two years of medical coding experience in a medical office.
- Acusis
Requires 3+ years of relevant experience.
From Acusis:
We are expanding our medical coding team and invite experienced certified medical coders to apply for our open positions. We do have some positions in Pittsburgh, PA at our headquarters, however most positions are home based. There are a few part time positions available. Our positions include facility coding, professional fee coding, procedural coding, ASC coding, as well as training and auditing. We will consider all relevant certifications from AAPC or AHIMA. For more information about coding career opportunities, email: uscoding.recruitment@acusis.com
- AMN Healthcare
AMN Healthcare provides many healthcare jobs, including medical coding and billing jobs. - Aviacode
Aviacode has contract remote medical coding jobs. Aviacode is one of the leading medical coding companies in the US and has opportunities for talented individuals to join. To see their current job openings and apply for positions online. Go to Job Listings and use their search form to find jobs that suit your specific career interests. - Change Healthcare
This company collaborates with payers and providers to apply innovative data and analytics solutions and services to help improve clinical decision-making and simplify billing, collection, and payment processes. Jobs I found include medical billing and coding jobs, hospital claims reimbursement specialists, and many other healthcare-related jobs.
They receive mixed reviews from Indeed.
Conifer offers inpatient, outpatient and professional fee coding services for every major specialty, including those with complex coding requirements such as radiology and anesthesiology. Their staff includes American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC)-certified and approved professionals.
- Cognizant
Has remote jobs available.
- CSI Companies
CSI offers job seekers a variety of flexible options. Work as a consultant or direct hire for one of our many great clients or join our in-house corporate team. They connect top talent with some of the nation’s best companies and jobs that provide outstanding pay, benefits, and career growth opportunities. They specialize in healthcare, technology, and financial services. - CVS Health
CVS offers medical billing and coding jobs healthcare jobs through some of their partner companies such as Aetna and others.
- Excela/Lexicode
Lexicode is now a part of Excela. Excela Health specializes in health careers. Some positions require only 1-2 years of coding experience. This job requires CPC and CCS certifications.
Here's a job I saw posted on Excela:
Patient accounts: Responsible for billing submission and collection of Home Health/Hospice patient claims in order to obtain maximum reimbursement for services and successful flow of revenue cycle.
- Franciscan Health
Below are some work-from-home coding jobs I found at Franciscan Health, including work-from-home coders, coder III, coding auditors and coding analysts, and coding edits analysts.
- Humana
Humana hires various work-at-home healthcare professionals, including medical coders. Medical coding jobs require a CPC, CCS, RHIA, or RHIT. - iMedX
iMedX is one of the leading providers of health information and clinical documentation in the United States. They have remote jobs for remote medical coding specialists and medical transcriptionists. See reviews at Indeed and Glassdoor. - Lexicode – Read my review
Freelance jobs available. - Maxim Health Information Services
Freelance jobs available.
Maxim helps many well-known organizations fill medical coding positions. - MRA (Medical Records Associates)
Freelance jobs available. - Parallon/HCA Healthcare
Careers
Remote jobs are available. HCA Healthcare offers a variety of work-from-home opportunities, including medical coding positions. Parallon is proud to have been named a “Top 100 Company to Watch for Remote Jobs in 2016” by FlexJobs, a trusted resource for job seekers. - Providence Health & Services Providence has coding telecommuting jobs and office jobs available in many locations. They list many healthcare jobs, including billing/coding jobs, medical assistants, nursing jobs, and more.
From Providence: “Some of our billing and coding positions offer telecommuting/work-at-home opportunities. Highly skilled billing and coding employees are essential. We understand the importance of keeping up to date with constantly changing coding and billing rules.”
- Quick Med Claims – Read my review
Freelance jobs available. - R1
R1 typically has a large selection of medical coding jobs. You must be in the US and most medical coding and billing jobs require a CPC certification and coding experience. - SpectraMedi MSO
SpectraMedi MSO has multiple full or part-time openings for remote medical billing jobs. You must have billing experience in multiple disciplines. Duties include; charge entry, claim submission, payment posting, follow-up on denials, and follow-up with patients.
For more information visit the company's website at https://www.spectramedi.com/. They may also post on Upwork and LinkedIn.
- TruBridge
Freelance jobs available. - United Health Group
Billing and coding jobs
United Health Group has a variety of telecommuting positions available, including medical coding positions. Coding jobs include billing representative, billing supervisor, and billing manager.
You can be trained as a medical coder and be career-ready with
CareerSteps’ Medical Billing program in as little as three months.
More sites where you can find coding jobs
You can also get coding jobs by using Indeed, FlexJobs, ZipRecruiter, Monster, and other job search engines and career sites. Many healthcare providers, medical facilities, hospitals, and other businesses post their job ads on these types of job sites.
Employers who want to hire medical coders and billers who work from home often use the keywords “remote, telecommute” and similar.
Keywords you can use to search those sites include “medical coder work home, remote medical coder, remote medical coding, remote medical billing, virtual medical coder, telecommute medical coding and more.
- Indeed. This popular job site posts many medical coding jobs and this site is free for job seekers. You can find a large variety of in-patient and outpatient coding jobs, including work-from-home remote coding jobs at Indeed. Maxim Health Information Services and Aviacode often post their job opening at Indeed.
- FlexJobs. With FlexJobs, you can access hand-screened remote, part-time, freelance, and flexible jobs quickly and easily. This is a great site to look for legitimate, remote, work-from-home jobs. It's worth paying the fee for this site because they hand-screen all their job listings.
- ZipRecruiter. This is a great site to find local jobs.
- Monster. You can find remote medical coding jobs at Monster.com. Monster is one of the most established job sites.
More tips to find coding jobs:
- Internet search tips: When looking for work from home, search the Internet using keywords such as “medical coding independent contractor” or “remote medical coding jobs” to get coding jobs from home.
- Attend local AAPC chapter meetings.
- Call medical coding organizations
- Get job leads and advice from AHIMA and AAPC forums.
Get the Proper Training to Pass the Coding Exam and Get Your Credentials
A good coding training program will help you prepare for the coding exams.
- The program should prepare you to get industry credentials such as the CCA (offered by AHIMA) and CPC (offered by AAPC) certification exams.
- Make sure your training program includes CPT, HCPCS, and ICD-10 code sets; classification systems; medical terminology; health information guidelines; and reimbursement methodologies
- Thorough training and passing a certification exam will help you get a job right out of training.
The medical billing and coding program at CareerStep covers the above requirements. You can be trained and be career-ready with CareerSteps’ Medical Billing program in as little as three months. CareerStep built the course to cover everything you need to know to start your medical billing career and get a job as quickly as possible. This is an established school with a good reputation.
How to Work from Home as a Remote Medical Coder
Remote medical coders are medical coders who work outside of healthcare facilities. They can work from home or from anywhere they choose as long as they have an internet connection.
Remote medical coders may get their own contracts or work for large coding companies that contract with hospitals or healthcare facilities.
Most medical coders who work from home are independent contractors. They are typically paid per chart they code. Rates vary depending on the company, type of coding (professional or facility), and the medical specialty. Each coding specialty has its own bar rate and standard pay rate.
They are paid by production so the faster you can code the more money you can make. Of course, accuracy is very important and most companies require a 96% – 99% accuracy.
Medical coding independent contractors must have a computer, medical coding books, and an Internet connection and may need to purchase coding software.
What You Need to Know About Work-from-Home Coding Jobs
You need to understand that entry-level training will get you prepared for an entry-level position and that you should not expect to get top salaries immediately after getting your certification.
Also, most companies that provide coding jobs to work-from-home coders want them to have on-the-job coding experience. Expect to get two to three years of on-the-job medical coding experience before getting coding contract positions and working from home.
But if you stick with medical billing and build some experience you can make a good living at it. And as there is a shortage of medical billers, this is a career with great opportunities.
Conclusion:
Medical coding is a great entry-level job with a lot of advancement opportunities as you gain additional experience or education.
If you're interested in a healthcare career, you should definitely check out medical billing and coding. It can be a rewarding career that is in high demand and will stay in high demand for many, many years.
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