Medical Coder: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.
The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.
10% of medical coders earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $37,000
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
25% of medical coders earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $43,490
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
Half of medical coders earn more than this and half earn less.
- Annual
- $51,140
- Hourly
- $24.59
- Source
- BLS May 2025
75% of medical coders earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $64,820
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
90% of medical coders earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $81,150
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
Medical Coders compile, process, and maintain medical records of hospital and clinic patients in a manner consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements of the healthcare system. The median pay is $51,140 a year ($24.59 an hour) (BLS, May 2025).
- Median pay
- $51,140
- BLS May 2025
- Employed in the U.S.
- 194,720
- BLS May 2025
- Preparation
- Job Zone 3 of 5
- medium preparation
Data Government data groups this job as Medical Records Specialists (O*NET-SOC 29-2072.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.
Every page for Medical Coders
What medical coders do day to day
Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).
- Protect the security of medical records to ensure that confidentiality is maintained.
- Review records for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with regulations.
- Scan patients' health records into electronic formats.
- Release information to persons or agencies according to regulations.
- Enter data, such as demographic characteristics, history and extent of disease, diagnostic procedures, or treatment into computer.
- Maintain or operate a variety of health record indexes or storage and retrieval systems to collect, classify, store, or analyze information.
- Process patient admission or discharge documents.
- Retrieve patient medical records for physicians, technicians, or other medical personnel.
Ranked by importance to the job
Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.
Knowledge areas: Administrative, English Language, Customer and Personal Service, Computers and Electronics, Administration and Management.
Software medical coders use
Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.
- Epic SystemsMedical softwareIn demand
- Henry Schein DentrixMedical softwareHot technology
- IBM SPSS StatisticsAnalytical or scientific softwareHot technology
- MEDITECH softwareMedical softwareHot technology
- Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services SSRSData base reporting softwareHot technology
- Microsoft VisioProcess mapping and design softwareHot technology
- SASAnalytical or scientific softwareHot technology
- Teradata DatabaseData base management system softwareHot technology
- eClinicalWorks EHR softwareMedical softwareHot technology
- 3M EncoderCategorization or classification software
- Allscripts EHRMedical software
- Amazing ChartsMedical software
Also called: Medical Record Specialist, Coder, Health Information Clerk, Health Information Specialist, Health Information Technician (Health Information Tech), Health Records Specialist, HIM Clerk (Health Information Management Clerk).
How this page is built
Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.
- How a specific employer defines the job.
- Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
- Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).