Medical Coder Job Description Template (Duties, Requirements, Qualifications)

A posting has a handful of load-bearing parts: a summary line, the duties, the qualifications, the schedule and remote terms, the pay line, and the equal-opportunity language.

The four that take judgment get their own section below.

Which duties belong in a medical coder job description?

Write the duties from what the seat actually codes.

BLS describes medical coders as assigning the diagnosis and procedure codes for patient care, population health statistics and billing purposes, and acting as the liaison between healthcare providers and billing offices.

Both halves belong in the posting: the coding work, and the communication that comes with it.

O*NET, the federal occupational database, fills in the tasks: identifying, compiling, abstracting and coding patient data using standard classification systems, and resolving or clarifying codes or diagnoses when information is conflicting, missing or unclear by consulting doctors or others.

That second task deserves its own line — candidates should know up front that they will go back to providers when the documentation does not support a code.

• Assign ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes and CPT and HCPCS Level II procedure codes from clinical documentation.
• Review documentation for completeness and query providers when information is conflicting, missing or unclear.
• Code in [EHR / practice-management system] with [encoder software].
• Work payer edits before claims release — for Medicare claims, CMS publishes NCCI procedure-to-procedure edits and medically unlikely edits with quarterly updates.
• Support internal coding audits and act on the findings.
• Complete the company's HIPAA, privacy and coding-compliance training.

Keep the list honest to the seat.

Name the setting — professional-fee (physician services) or facility — because AHIMA maintains a separate physician-based credential, the CCS-P, alongside the CCS.

If the seat reads charts for more than one practice or client, say so in the posting too.

Titles run loose in this field.

O*NET's sample job titles for the occupation include Coder, Medical Coder, Health Information Technician and HIM Clerk, so a posting titled Medical Coder competes with a shelf of near-identical ads.

Say the specialty, the setting and the code sets in the first three lines.

The worker-side explainer of the role is our medical coder career guide; link it from your careers page rather than rewriting the job there.

Candidates make the mirror move: a medical coder job description for a resume is these duty lines, claimed only where they are true.

What qualifications and certifications should you list for a medical coder?

Split the section into education, credentials and experience, and mark each line as required or preferred.

BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook says medical records specialists typically need a postsecondary certificate to enter the occupation, some qualify with a high school diploma, and certification may be required or preferred.

Name the credential you mean.

AAPC describes the CPC as validating comprehensive coding knowledge across outpatient and physician services, including ICD-10-CM, CPT and HCPCS Level II, compliance, payer rules and reimbursement.

So a certified professional coder job description is this template with the CPC named as the requirement or the preference, not left to the acronym alone.

AHIMA's credentials read differently.

The CCS demonstrates tested skills in data quality and accuracy and mastery of coding proficiency, and the CCS-P is the physician-based credential, covering ICD-10-CM and CPT and HCPCS content.

Pick the one that matches the seat you are posting.

Decide the apprentice stance before you write the line.

AAPC states that a candidate who passes the CPC exam without two years of coding experience carries apprentice status, CPC-A, which tells employers the person passed the exam but is still gaining on-the-job experience.

Write CPC required, CPC or CCS-P preferred, or CPC-A considered — and mean the one you write.

Word the credential line as the preference you set.

BLS describes certification as something that may be required or preferred, so the bar is yours to set — confirm the current credential details with AAPC or AHIMA before you post.

The rest of the sequence — credential verification, skills testing, interview structure — is covered in our guide to how to hire this role.

How do you write the remote-work, schedule and productivity terms?

Say the schedule first.

Most medical records specialists work full time, per BLS, and in always-open facilities such as hospitals they may work shifts, including nights or weekends.

State which world the seat lives in: day hours, a rotating shift, or coverage windows for a remote seat.

If the seat is remote or hybrid, spell the terms instead of gesturing at them: whose equipment, what kind of connection, what workspace, and which policies govern protected health information on a home machine.

A line such as "we provide the equipment; you keep a private workspace and connect through our VPN under our security policy" settles the remote questions before they are asked.

State productivity and quality as your own standard, not an industry number.

Describe the work the seat handles (work queues, record types, turnaround expectations) and how you measure it (internal audits, feedback).

The sources behind this page carry no charts-per-hour or accuracy-rate benchmark to borrow — set the standard for your team, publish it in the posting, and measure against it.

Our medical coder productivity standards guide shows how to build one from your own data.

Which pay-range and legal language must a posting include?

Put a pay range in the posting and source it before you set it.

A defensible anchor is the BLS OEWS May 2025 wage table for medical records specialists (SOC 29-2072), the closest available BLS group for coding seats — one that also counts records staff who do not code.

Nationally, the 25th percentile was $43,490, the median $51,140 and the 75th $64,820.

Treat it as a reference point for your market and specialty, not a verdict.

Four states make pay disclosure a requirement for covered employers:

• California: Labor Code 432.3(c)(3) requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale in any job posting, and a third party posting the job for them must include it too.
• New York: Labor Law 194-b requires businesses with four or more employees to list a compensation range — minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly pay — and a job description for advertised jobs, stating whether a position is commission-based.
• Washington: the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act requires employers with 15 or more employees to include a wage scale or salary range, a general description of all benefits, and a general description of other compensation in job postings.
• Colorado: the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (C.R.S. 8-5-101 et seq.) requires employers to disclose compensation, benefits information and how and when to apply in all internal and public job postings.

These are the four states the research behind this page verifies; other states and some cities have their own posting rules.

Confirm the rule where you hire with your state labor agency before you post.

Keep the ad itself neutral.

The EEOC says it is illegal for an employer to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference for, or discourages applicants because of, a protected trait.

Its list covers race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and transgender status), national origin, age 40 or older, disability and genetic information.

Requirements tied to the work and an equal-opportunity line keep the wording clean.

Close the duties with a policy line: the coder follows the company's HIPAA, privacy and coding-compliance policies and completes its training.

One sentence, and it shows candidates the program exists.

How do you adapt the template for physician practices, multispecialty groups, billing companies, remote coding teams?

Physician practice or specialty group: the template stands as written.

Name the specialty in the title line, so candidates can see the chart mix before they apply.

If the seat also handles charge entry or claim follow-up, say so and title it accordingly — the combined billing-and-coding hire is its own role, with its own hiring guide.

Multispecialty group: list the specialties the seat actually touches, the systems it works in, and whether coding spans multiple locations.

Credential wording can stay at CPC or CCS-P preferred while the specialty knowledge gets trained internally.

Billing company or RCM vendor: say whether the coder reads charts from several practices, works in more than one practice-management system, applies client-specific payer rules, and supports client audit calendars.

The productivity line matters more here, so define it as your own measured standard rather than a borrowed number.

Remote coding team: keep the schedule line even when the seat is asynchronous — state the coverage window or core hours instead of leaving it blank.

Repeat the security terms in the posting itself, and give remote and on-site candidates the same skills test so the comparison stays fair.

These are the posting mistakes to check for before you publish:

• No pay range — required by the four state rules above where they apply, and its absence reads as a closed door everywhere else.
• No schedule or remote terms, so candidates cannot tell whether the seat fits their life.
• A bare Medical Coder title with no setting, specialty or pro-fee-versus-facility marker.
• An unclear credential line — certification required with no acronym, or a CPC-A stance left unstated.
• No systems named, so experienced coders cannot tell whether their stack transfers.

When applications arrive, verify the credential with the issuing body rather than trusting a resume line — our guide to verifying an AAPC certification covers the lookup, and the same habit applies to AHIMA credentials.

A skills test built from your own charts comes next; our medical coding skills test guide shows how to build and score one.

To sanity-check your wording against the market, browse medical coder jobs and compare your posting with live listings.

Our employer guides — role hubs, job descriptions and checklists — are collected in the employer hub.

Employer information, not coding, billing-compliance, legal or tax advice. Confirm posting and pay-disclosure requirements with your state labor agency, credential questions with AAPC or AHIMA, and classification or wage questions with the DOL or counsel.