Survey: What Do Medical Coders Do?

What Do Medical Coders Do?

Ask a handful of medical coders to describe their work days, and you’re likely to get a handful of very different answers. And rightfully so, since medical coders can wear many hats!

From managing an entire business, to billing radiology and auditing claims for a nationwide payer organization—the responsibilities of a medical coder can vary greatly. And what they do depends greatly on the office environment they work in. Medical coders typically work in IT environments. Some offices can have totally automated systems that use electronic medical records equipped with computer assisted coding, and some offices (typically small practices) can still file claims by hand.

The American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) Survey ^[1]

In 2008, the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) invited medical coders to participate in a survey. The goal was to better understand the work that they do.

AAPC serves more than 100,000 member coders, 64,000 of whom are certified professional medical coders. To better understand and meet member needs, AAPC wanted to fully understand coder workplace responsibilities. The survey collected demographic information regarding work environment and credentials, and included 40 questions that were specific to work and working relationships.

The survey was made available online and was open to responses for 6 weeks. It received 12,068 responses, of which 93.5% were professional coders certified through AAPC. Completing the exam were 8,975 coders, or 74.4 percent of participants.

Of the 633,000 physicians practicing in the United States in 2005, 15% were self-employed, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).Many multi-physician clinics remain independent as well. Each independent practice has created its own processes, policies, and cultures, and providers each view their coders differently.

The largest body of AAPC members consists of physician coders employed in clinical practices. Even so, AAPC recognizes that a significant number of its members are coders who are not employed within clinical practices, and that their workday responsibilities were not addressed in The Work of a Coder. Future AAPC sponsored surveys will address their markets more specifically.

What follows is a quantifiable snapshot of the workplace and workday of medical coders in clinical environments. With this data in hand, AAPC is able to assess how the expertise of medical coders is being leveraged in the workplace, and make observations regarding improvements that could be implemented to improve practice management, resource allocations, and coding education.

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