Discover Your New Career
Become a Certified Professional Coder
Welcome to Certitude Health Coding Educators. I’m thrilled you’re here—because I have so much I want to share with you. I’m here to make a life out of what I love and what I love is teaching. I am passionate about Certitude Health Coding Educators and I am "certain" that passion is relayed back to my students through their classroom experience.
Explore my site and all that I have to offer; perhaps Certitude Health Coding Educators will ignite your own passions too.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for certified medical coder will increase 22 percent through the year 2022. Prepare yourself to meet the industry demand by becoming a certified professional coder. This is your first step to a career in healthcare. Increase your chances of being hired in a competitive job market.
What Is Medical Coding?
Medical coding is the transformation of healthcare diagnosis, procedures, medical services, and equipment into universal medical alphanumeric codes. The diagnoses and procedure codes are taken from medical record documentation, such as transcription of physician's notes, laboratory and radiologic results, etc. Medical coding professionals help ensure the codes are applied correctly during the medical billing process, which includes abstracting the information from documentation, assigning the appropriate codes, and creating a claim to be paid by insurance carriers.
Medical coding standards have become increasingly complex. Regulations and requirements with the current healthcare delivery system are best met when medical coders, certified in specialty practice, provide medical coding.
Medical coders (certified and non-certified) make an average salary of $54,890, up 5.8% from last year’s average salary of $51,889. Medical coders without certification earn approximately $42,015 per year while certified professional coders make $55,923 annually on average—33% more than their non-certified colleagues. This calculation includes all certifications attained through AAPC, AHIMA, and other organizations. The average salary solely for AAPC-certified professionals is 8.7% higher.
Pay continues to climb for medical coding certification. The salary for health information technicians with two credentials rises to an average of $64,890. Billing and coding specialists with three or more credentials earn approximately $70,608 per year.
Photo Credit: 2019 AAPC Salary Regional Averages
