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kbromley

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I hate to post this here but I have no other avenue for reference besides Google, which is very vague. I currently work at a small, independent primary care office with 3 providers. I do all coding and billing and have done so for the last 2.5 years. I have taken a coding class through the University of TN but never taken the CPC exam. I also have taken a billing class, passed the AAPC CPB exam and am a certified biller. I am questioning how much average pay in our area (east TN) is for a biller/coder. Can anyone help?
Thank you in advance.
 
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Well locality affects salary as you know.

I am located in El Paso, Texas. I started earning 13.45 in my first coding job. I attended to a local university were I earned my Associates Degree in coding and billing and became CPC certified. I graduated in 2013 and later was given the opportunity to work at an army hospital and also teaching coding and billing as part time. At the moment I am only coding at the army hospital and making 52,000 a year. I am just a coder with a lot of experience and currently looking to move up as an auditor or CDI. I also obtained my CIC certification about 2 years ago and became CCS certified this year. I did this to, of course, open more doors for me. I am currently going back to school for my Bachelors in Health Information Management to obtain a RHIA credential which definitely is a big change in salary. My point is, every place will be different, independent doctors offices most of the time pay a little less than expected but not all of them, I had a student of mine that got certified, went to work freshly new for a providers office, and got started at 13, then in 6 months, because of her amazing job, got promoted and was getting paid 21 an hour. Then i've also seen people getting paid minimum wage with a certification.

Also, the AAPC does salary surveys for that same purpose.

please refer to this link.


hope this information helps!
 
It definitely depends on where you live. Here in New England, where it can cost several thousand dollars a year to heat your house (if you want to actually be warm....), you can typically start out at $18 per hour. Solid, experienced coders make twice that. Other factors influencing pay would be whether or not you hold a certification, whether you work in a hospital or private practice, and whether or not you are specialized in areas where it's hard to find experts.
 
Pam Brooks said:
It definitely depends on where you live. Here in New England, where it can cost several thousand dollars a year to heat your house (if you want to actually be warm....), you can typically start out at $18 per hour. Solid, experienced coders make twice that. Other factors influencing pay would be whether or not you hold a certification, whether you work in a hospital or private practice, and whether or not you are specialized in areas where it's hard to find experts.
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I have heard great things about your facility, thank you from Florida, your information is very much on my mind as I want to move back to NH in next year. Thank you for sharing
 
kbromley said:
I hate to post this here but I have no other avenue for reference besides Google, which is very vague. I currently work at a small, independent primary care office with 3 providers. I do all coding and billing and have done so for the last 2.5 years. I have taken a coding class through UT but never taken the CPC exam. I also have taken a billing class, passed the AAPC CPB exam and am a certified biller. I am questioning how much average pay in our area is for a biller/coder. Can anyone help?
Thank you in advance.
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Florida West coast is a poorer payer than Florida east coast, per the AAPC annual salary report- [Certified, assoc in Coding and 12 years experience]
 
I somewhat agree with the above. It not only depends on where you live but who you work for. I'm in North TX. If the office/facility values medical coders and fully understands what we do, they pay more & invest in their coders. I was offered $10/hr at the first office I worked in following the passing of the CPC exam. I also have a Master's degree & experience in healthcare. My next position definitely increased my income, but they were kind of shady & still paid less than most. Now, I work for an auditing company as an outsourced coder making well over $60K which is dependent on how many charts I code. They provide me with a mentor & ongoing education. It's wonderful.
 
I started at 10 fresh out of school I than went to a lab which paid well but was 100 miles a day travel. I recently went to a 3 office family practice and took a pay cut but cut my travel to about 20 miles if i go to the furthest away office. Currently I am at 14 an hour I could make more but would have more travel or would have consider moving. I d rather not do either of those at this time. I'm in FL.
 
This blows my mind some reading the salary info all of you have supplied. It is too late to wish that people would stop accepting low pay for a position you spent a fortune to get a credential for. Now I understand why a contractor thought they could offer pay at 65% less than what I was making when the customer switched vendors. The new vendor had no shame and was shocked I walked. The facility was pissed but they got what they bargained for. Had another job immediately and the new company moved me to the east coast and paid me what I asked for without a blink. Found out the job I walked on, that vendor had to hire three people to do what I did. The benefit packages for three employees cost them big time. What is hilarious is now a small slot of my time is actually auditing that company and they have the worst coding practices I have ever seen. I am so glad I am anonymous.

I wish all of you the best but anything under $90/yr puts me in the poorhouse! What an eye opener too! Now I understand why the money isn't in this field any longer. And having a bunch of degrees and credentials doesn't seem to make much difference if you say you have a Master's degree and started out at ten an hour. I remember a few months ago someone directed me to look at a website in TX. When I opened the site, there were two buttons. India and TX. I didn't bother to investigate further. I read here someone works DoD. I have a friend at Sterling. She is a Program Deputy Manager and the horror stories she has shared was something else! The government is planning to revamp their healthcare system as far as contracts and employment for this field. Can't be grandfathered in any longer and they want credentials. From what I heard, they will tell you what credentials they want not what you already may or may not have. And ICD-11 is coming soon too!

I am not trying to be harsh, or hurt anyone here. I stuck my head out of my own comforts to see what the heck is going on in this field. It is nt my imagination any longer. We used to be respected and reverred as hard working knowledgeable professionals making a decent wage. Now i can see that this field is saturated with new and experienced professionals competing for pay I can't even imagine. Please don't hate me I could find myself in this boat too. I'm making plans for sure!

Good luck Everyone!
 
LisaAlonso23 said:
I somewhat agree with the above. It not only depends on where you live but who you work for. I'm in North TX. If the office/facility values medical coders and fully understands what we do, they pay more & invest in their coders. I was offered $10/hr at the first office I worked in following the passing of the CPC exam. I also have a Master's degree & experience in healthcare. My next position definitely increased my income, but they were kind of shady & still paid less than most. Now, I work for an auditing company as an outsourced coder making well over $60K which is dependent on how many charts I code. They provide me with a mentor & ongoing education. It's wonderful.
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I also have a Master's degree & several years of experience in healthcare. Would it be wise to take my Master's degree off of my resume when applying to medical coding positions? I do not want to be consider "over-qualified".
I live close to San Antonio, Texas and received my CPC-A last year.
 
ndeese1 said:
I also have a Master's degree & several years of experience in healthcare. Would it be wise to take my Master's degree off of my resume when applying to medical coding positions? I do not want to be consider "over-qualified".
I live close to San Antonio, Texas and received my CPC-A last year.
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I wouldn't remove it. If the person hiring you won't because of an advanced degree, you don't want to work there. That's a red flag.
 
I live in New York (not NYC) and started out in the $13 range as a medical biller with a large billing company. I made close to $20/hour after being there for 10 years. I left billing company to work for small doctors office and made well over $20, then became a coder and still make about the same. The average coder salary across the country according to the web is $25/hour. It seems pretty hard to find companies that will pay you that much however. Remote coding pays very well but you will need to adapt to different software programs.
 
KellyLR said:
This blows my mind some reading the salary info all of you have supplied. It is too late to wish that people would stop accepting low pay for a position you spent a fortune to get a credential for. Now I understand why a contractor thought they could offer pay at 65% less than what I was making when the customer switched vendors. The new vendor had no shame and was shocked I walked. The facility was pissed but they got what they bargained for. Had another job immediately and the new company moved me to the east coast and paid me what I asked for without a blink. Found out the job I walked on, that vendor had to hire three people to do what I did. The benefit packages for three employees cost them big time. What is hilarious is now a small slot of my time is actually auditing that company and they have the worst coding practices I have ever seen. I am so glad I am anonymous.

I wish all of you the best but anything under $90/yr puts me in the poorhouse! What an eye opener too! Now I understand why the money isn't in this field any longer. And having a bunch of degrees and credentials doesn't seem to make much difference if you say you have a Master's degree and started out at ten an hour. I remember a few months ago someone directed me to look at a website in TX. When I opened the site, there were two buttons. India and TX. I didn't bother to investigate further. I read here someone works DoD. I have a friend at Sterling. She is a Program Deputy Manager and the horror stories she has shared was something else! The government is planning to revamp their healthcare system as far as contracts and employment for this field. Can't be grandfathered in any longer and they want credentials. From what I heard, they will tell you what credentials they want not what you already may or may not have. And ICD-11 is coming soon too!

I am not trying to be harsh, or hurt anyone here. I stuck my head out of my own comforts to see what the heck is going on in this field. It is nt my imagination any longer. We used to be respected and reverred as hard working knowledgeable professionals making a decent wage. Now i can see that this field is saturated with new and experienced professionals competing for pay I can't even imagine. Please don't hate me I could find myself in this boat too. I'm making plans for sure!

Good luck Everyone!
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I was also shocked to see the posts here. The knowledge I have is invaluable and no one else on my team can do what I do.
 
AMEN!!!! Quit accepting low pay! Unless you work for physician offices, location should not be a factor. Even then, I would sell myself further to the doctors, find a way to show them how much money you are bringing in by correcting their coding, cutting down on denials, etc.
To the original poster...I live in Alabama (still in the southeast and comparable to you), work for a payer, and make an awesome salary. That's the best I can do on a public forum. :)
 
kbromley said:
I hate to post this here but I have no other avenue for reference besides Google, which is very vague. I currently work at a small, independent primary care office with 3 providers. I do all coding and billing and have done so for the last 2.5 years. I have taken a coding class through the University of TN but never taken the CPC exam. I also have taken a billing class, passed the AAPC CPB exam and am a certified biller. I am questioning how much average pay in our area (east TN) is for a biller/coder. Can anyone help?
Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

Since you work for PCP's, do you know MRA/HCC coding? If you knew this, you'd be invaluable to them, and could negotiate for a very good salary. You'd be able to co-operate with Medicare Advantage companies to help them capture Risk Adjustment information that they have to capture. They reward participating PCP's...
 
rmwinder said:
Since you work for PCP's, do you know MRA/HCC coding? If you knew this, you'd be invaluable to them, and could negotiate for a very good salary. You'd be able to co-operate with Medicare Advantage companies to help them capture Risk Adjustment information that they have to capture. They reward participating PCP's...
Click to expand...
I do not know it well and I will be looking into it more. I currently make a base hourly rate and a percentage of the insurance money brought it. But that would benefit both the business and me. Thank you for your information.
 
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