Medical Billing and Coding Specialist

Medical records specialists typically do the following:

• Review patients’ records for timeliness, completeness, and accuracy
• Use classification systems to assign clinical codes for patients’ diagnoses, procedures, medical services, and related information
• Maintain and retrieve records for insurance reimbursement and data analysis
• Electronically record data for collection, storage, analysis, retrieval, and reporting
• Ensure confidentiality of patients’ records

Medical records specialists have a variety of data entry and recordkeeping tasks. They may gather patients’ medical histories, symptoms, test results, treatments, and other health information and enter the details into electronic health records (EHR) systems. Some workers categorize medical information for purposes such as insurance reimbursement and providing data to clinicians.

Medical coders assign the diagnosis and procedure codes for patient care, population health statistics, and billing purposes. For example, they might review patient information for preexisting conditions, such as diabetes, to ensure proper coding of patient data. They also work as the liaison between healthcare providers and billing offices.

For further information visit the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website.