Looking for a Career Change? Why You Should Consider Medical Coding
Considering a new career? It’s an exciting and sometimes confusing time.
We’ll fully admit that as a medical coding school we’re a little bit biased (we love medical coding and don’t care who knows it), but today we’d love to share with you 6 reasons that may have you considering a career in medical coding.
1 | Medical Coding Is a Growing Field
The healthcare industry needs you now more than ever. Heroic nurses and doctors and showing up every day to care for the people who need their help.
The field of healthcare has continued to grow over the history of this country, and as overall health declines and 73 million baby boomers begin regularly consuming healthcare, that need will only grow.
Did you know? The Bureau of Labor and Statistics tagged medical coding as the fastest growing career in the country. It’s expected to grow 13% between now and 2026, which is 2X the average growth!
In addition to being a growing field, healthcare is a secure field. As a medical coder, you are a critical step in the larger healthcare process. Wondering what exactly that healthcare process looks like? We’re here to answer.
Here’s how it works:
Patient sees doctor
Doctor records details of the visit
Visit file is transcribed
Transcribed file is uploaded/filed
Coder codes document from transcribed file
Biller bills visit from coded document
Insurance/patient are billed
Completed documents are filed in patient's medical record
In other words, the entire process only works if everyone at each step is pulling their weight. We need excellent medical coders who are doing their part. And as a great medical coder (which you will be, of course) you will always have a job.
2 | Medical Coding Offers Incredible Opportunities for Advancement
If you haven’t heard this before, get ready: medical coding is a growing career.
What does this mean? It means it’s the perfect opportunity to DESIGN a career that fits your unique goals, lifestyle, and ambition.
Looking for a part-time job you can do from home? Medical coding can provide you one. Want to build a 30+ year career that includes travel, different work environments, increasing pay, and prestige? Medical coding has you covered.
Maybe you’re somewhere in the middle. The point is if you are looking to build an impressive career for yourself, medical coding may be the perfect fit. Dozens of specialties, unique positions, credentials, and opportunities for advancement exist in this field.
You never know where it may take you.
3 | Flexibility
Along the same lines as the previous benefit, medical coding is a great career when it comes to flexibility.
This is true both as you learn AND once you land your first job. There are online programs that can help you learn the foundations of coding and prepare you for your certification exam (not to mention help you gain much-needed experience).
But more importantly, there are opportunities to work from home and choose your own hours.
Check out what certified coder Manuel Haynes has to say about it:
“I have always loved to travel. And in construction, I was only allowed to take maybe 1-2 weeks of vacation a year. Now, in the four years I’ve done coding I did the Oregon Coast on a 10-day trip and was able to keep working. I’ve worked from Mexico, Nicaragua, and I spent a month living in Spain. Two months living in the Dominican. We had a condo right on the beach, maybe 10 feet from the water. That’s where I worked every day.”
4 | Good Pay
The average salary for certified medical coders is just over $50,000. Not too shabby. Even better news? You can grow from there. As you gain more experience and credentials and as you continue to specialize, you will become more valuable as a medical coder.
What does more value come with? More money.
Medical coding can be challenging and takes dedication and hard work, but it is extremely rewarding, both financially and personally.
5 | Easy Entry
Many programs (including ours) can get medical coders working in the field in as little as one year. Can you picture a meaningful career where you can choose to work from home or begin building a successful professional lifestyle by next year?
Here’s what the process looks like for the CareerWize medical coding online training program:
Learn foundational knowledge (anatomy, medical language, etc.) Timeline: 2-4 months.
Learn medical coding (ICD-10-CM, etc.) Timeline: 3-5 months.
Prepare to take your certification exam. Timeline: 1-2 weeks.
Take your certification exam.
Spend time gaining hands-on experience.
This is where most new coders get stuck. They’ve taken their exam and are all credentialed and ready to go. But employers are looking for experience. What’s a coder to do? Options may include unpaid internships or working with a mentor. We offer the unique opportunity to gain real-life experience from the comfort of your own home with our one-of-a-kind Virtual Internship. Timeline: 3-4 months.
Prepare your resume.
Start interviewing.
Land your dream job!
Total timeline: 10-14 months.
Other programs vary in length, but typically you can be up and running in 1-2 years and take off from there.
6 | Rewarding
Here are some of our favorite benefits:
As a medical coder you will be contributing to critical research and data collection that helps improve the health of our country and our world. You’ll be supporting doctors and insuring patients are taken care of through proper record-keeping.
For example: A real-life patient was negatively impacted for years when a careless coder assigned a code that incorrectly labeled her as a smoker. This affected her level of care and the reimbursements insurance companies were willing to provide, and took many years to correct.
This is why it is crucial that the coding industry attracts eager, smart, and ambitious people who are willing to work hard and rise to the top of the industry. That might just be you!
In addition, medical coding is mentally stimulating and offers opportunities for continued learning and personal improvement.
Another fun benefit? We have often found that coders find great meaning in helping others transform their lives by showing them the benefits of a career in medical coding. Remember Manuel? He got his entire family into the field.
Many coders go on to refer and help several friends and acquaintances build careers they love that improve the lifestyle of them and their families.
What do you think? Does medical coding sound like it might just be the job for you?
If you want to learn more, check out our Video Library, it’s filled with helpful information about the career of medical coding and how to become a medical coder.
KNOW that medical coding is the career for you? Great! Check out our program to see if CareerWize is the right fit for you.