How to Get Medical Billing & Coding Jobs from Home

Hey there! Some links on this page are affiliate links which means that, if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I greatly appreciate your support!

Are you interested in medical coding jobs? There is a huge demand for medical coders and a 50% shortage of medical coders is expected nationwide by the end of the year.

Medical coding is a great entry-level job with a lot of advancement opportunities as you gain additional experience or education.

What is Medical Coding and Billing?

Medical coders assign codes to patients' medical diagnoses and procedures.

These codes are used by the medical biller to bill patients and insurance companies.

Medical billing professionals create health insurance claims and collect funds. They are the liaisons between healthcare facilities and health insurance companies.

In smaller offices, the same person often handles both coding and billing.

Medical coders can work in an office as an employee or work from home.

Continue reading to find out how you can work from home as a medical coder.

Medical coding jobs can be salaried or contract positions.

You can get medical coding work from hospitals, physician offices, insurance companies, home health agencies, and a variety of other places that provide medical services.

You can also find coding jobs at consulting firms, home healthcare facilities, insurance companies, and law firms

How much can you make with medical coding?

ZipRecruiter, a well-known job search site, states that the average annual pay for a Remote Medical Coder in the US is $45,000-$62,000 a year.

However, income from coding work varies and will depend on your education, years of experience as a coder, specialty, and geographic location. An entry-level position will pay less.

average pay of medical billers and coders

How to Work from Home or Anywhere as a Remote Medical Coder

Check out CareerSteps’
Medical Billing program
and be career-ready within as little as three months!

Medical coders who work from home are often called remote medical coders. Remote medical coders can work from home or from anywhere as long as they have an internet connection.

They 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. Medical coding independent contractors must have a computer, medical coding books, and an Internet connection and may need to purchase coding software.

Remote coders 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.

What You Need to Know About Work-from-Home Coding Jobs

Entry-level training will get you prepared for an entry-level position and 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 require 2 to 3 years of on-the-job medical coding experience. You should expect to get two to three years of on-the-job medical coding experience before getting coding contract positions and working from home.

If you stick with medical billing and build some experience you can make a good living at it. This is a career with great opportunities as there is a shortage of medical billers.

If you want to get work from home immediately without going through on-the-job training, then you should choose a different work-from-home option. You may want to check out general (non-medical) transcription. Read my article, 8 Reasons for Choosing General Transcription Work Instead of Medical Transcription.

How to Get Started in Medical Coding

First, you need a certification to become a medical coder.

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.

The CPC (Certified Professional Coder) credential is awarded by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC). You can find details on the AAPC website.

The CCS credential (Certified Coding Specialist) is awarded by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

You may want to obtain one or both coding certifications. To choose which credential you want to get, you should consider your interest, experience, and where you want to work.

Physicians, private practices, emergency medicine, and other outpatient services require a CPC credential which is referred to as “professional” coding.

In-patient coding or “facility” coding is used by hospitals and requires a CCS credential.

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.

Check out Career Steps’ Medical Billing program
and be career-ready within as little as three months!

The medical billing and coding program at CareerStep covers the above requirements. 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. You can be trained and be career-ready with CareerSteps’ Medical Billing program in as little as three months. This is an established school with a good reputation.

How to Get Coding Experience

  • The first step to getting started in medical coding is to choose a school like CareerStep that has a good reputation with industry leaders and has job placement connections.
  • 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 freelance medical coders 

One way to get coding jobs is by working for a company that hires independent medical coding contractors. Below are companies that regularly hire freelance coders.

More ways to get coding jobs

Using job search sites like Indeed, FlexJobs, and ZipRecruiter is another way to get coding jobs.

  • Indeed. This is a very popular job site that posts many medical coding jobs. The 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 are often posting their job opening there.
  • 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, including medical billing and coding 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.
  • Use those 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.
  • Check the AAPC forum and attend chapter meetings.
  • Call medical coding organizations.
  • Get job leads from AHIMA and AAPC forums.

Medical coding can be a rewarding career that is in high demand and will stay in high demand for many, many years.

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.

It does take time and work and the higher pay won't happen overnight. You have to get the training, pass the exam, and get the certification and then you can start to build experience and work your way up.

Recommended Reading

Check out Career Steps’ Medical Billing program and be career-ready within as little as three months!

General Transcription Free Mini-Course
Sign up to receive my free general transcription mini-course and updates

2 thoughts on “How to Get Medical Billing & Coding Jobs from Home”

  1. Hello. Thank you for your great posts. I am not an American citizen, I live in South Africa and I am a registered pharmacist here. I am interested in a remote career I can do while traveling. I have worked in a doctors office before and have done billing on medical insurance. I have also worked for a medical scheme so I have knowledge of ICD10 codes and medical conditions and treatments. Will I be able to apply for a medical coding remote job on one of these sights you have mentioned?
    Kind regards, Carolé Nel

    Reply
    • Hi Carole, that’s a good question. Many coding jobs are remote jobs. I’ve seen companies outsource medical coding to non-US companies. So, it would be logical to think that not everyone will recruit non-US citizens but some companies will. It’s more important that you got your training from a US company. You may want to check out current job applications and look closely at their requirements for citizenship before taking any coding courses. Zip Recruiter also has a good article about international coding jobs at https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Career/International-Medical-Coding/What-Is-How-to-Become

      Reply

Leave a Comment