Medical Billing and Coding Salary – Guide to Hourly Rates of Pay

What salary can you expect if you work in medical billing and coding? This is frequently the prime concern for those looking for information relating to a career in this area. Well let us take a look at precisely what a medical billing and coding salary may offer.

As you are,no doubt, already aware, the healthcare industry is split into many different fields. Each specific field offers a degree of variation in salary for billers and coders, dependant on their specialist nature and services offered. One factor determining the level of pay for a medical biller and coder within a particular field will be the ability of that specialist field to command a higher or lower level of revenue from its patients.

Amendment to the law governing medical insurance has paved the way for new career opportunities in the medical billing and coding sphere. Now, according to the regulations, all organizations concerned with healthcare are required to keep up to date records relating to medical billing, claims,medical insurance and documents and all medical insurance company receipts. It amounts to an incredible amount of data. Given the huge quantity of data, it is virtually impossible for the health care service to keep track of billing and the filing of medical bills and insurance claims. As a result, this job is passed to in-house specialists or outsourced to medical billing and coding specialists skilled and trained in handling such huge data. Specialists who are skilled in this particular field are always sought after.

A medical billing and coding salary will be influenced by your level of experience and a few other factors. Employees just starting out can hope to earn a medical billing salary in the range $10.00-$14.00 per hour whilst those with a wealth of experience to call upon can expect to earn anywhere from $14.00 – $20.00 or more.

Geographical location is important in determining the precise level of salary on offer, as is the level of demand for this skill. Although generally the majority of billing and coding jobs are 9am to 5pm, the volume of work often means that companies operate evening and night time shifts to get the work done. Should you choose to work these shifts you will almost certainly qualify for a higher rate of pay.

So in a small clinic or medical office or just starting out in a billing company you can expect to earn around $10 per hour. As you gain experience and with increasing skill and dedication, you can progress all the way up to $30 – $40 per hour, in a senior position. You can get quite a few variables in terms of salary and the most effective advice is to phone the various billing companies in your area and ask what they pay their medical billers.

Medical coders have a slight advantage in influencing factors too insofar as they can gain certified status by taking the appropriate exams. Statistics show also that medical coders earn a slightly higher salary as a general rule.

So if you just at the stage where you are beginning to research levels of billing and coding salaries in your local area, it is a good idea to find out what you could earn locally rather than base any long-term decisions on average national rates of pay.. In that way, you will not be silly enough to base your career decision upon inappropriate medical billing and coding salary information.