Medical coding is a profession in the medical field that deals with analyzing medical data. This is an exciting career with good rewards. The salaries for medical coders are not definite; they keep changing from place to place. The salaries also keep rising with each passing year. Apart from different locations there are other factors that affect a medical coder’s average salary. This include years of experience, area of specialization and the type of industry where the coders work.
Salary According To Geographical Location
Some coders who work in a particular part of the country are paid more as compared to the rest. This can be explained by the fact that the living standards vary for place to place, thus people have to be paid depending on their living standards. Those coders who work in the big cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles earn more that those who work in the rural areas or in smaller cities.
Salary According To Type Of Employment
The salaries of medical coders also vary from one organization to the next. Most coders work in hospitals, pharmacies, insurance companies and private doctors’ offices. There are also those who work as private contractors, operating primarily at home.
Private contractors: most of these medical coders usually earn between $10 and $12 per hour. This translates to an average of $31,000.
Coders in hospitals: they earn an average of $42,000.
Coders working in private companies: these coders earn the most salaries whose average is $47,000.
Salary According To Experience
Medical coding is similar to other professions in terms of wages according to level of experience. The more the experience a medical coder has, the better the salary. A fresh graduate usually earns an average of $27,000 as compared to an average of $50,000 for medical coder who has been in business for a long time. Promotions are frequent in this promotion; therefore if you are a new medical coder, you do not have to worry about the low starting salary. The salary for medical coders who have worked for five to nine years is between $29,000 and $41,000. The average salary for those who have worked for 10 to 19 years is $40,000.
Salary According To Specialization
The following are the top earning medical coders, in order of specialization area.
Neuropsychiatry – $62,000
Rheumatology – $57,000
Nephrology – $50,000
Plastic surgery – $47,000
Interventional radiology – $46,500