The role of a Medical Coder is both essential and highly sought after. With the increasing reliance on accurate healthcare data and streamlined billing processes, skilled medical coders are in constant demand. Whether ensuring precise coding for complex procedures in leading hospitals in London, contributing to public health data accuracy in Manchester, or supporting efficient operations in private practices in Edinburgh, professionals in this field enjoy strong career prospects and the opportunity to make a significant impact by enabling effective healthcare delivery and reimbursement systems.
Medical Coding salary
Base pay £21K – £31K/yr
£26K/yr average base pay
The estimated salary for a Medical Coder is £25,517 per year. This number represents the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from our proprietary Total Pay Estimate model and based on salaries collected from our users. The “Most Likely Range” represents values that exist within the 25th and 75th percentile of all pay data available for this role.
What do Medical Coding earn
How much does a Medical Coding make in United Kingdom?
£28,350/yr
Highest paying cities for Medical Coding near United Kingdom
- London
£41,689 per year18 salaries reported - Epsom
£33,000 per year12 salaries reported - Gloucester
£31,344 per year6 salaries reported - Plymouth
£30,206 per year8 salaries reported - Bristol
£29,720 per year10 salaries reported - Manchester
£28,219 per year11 salaries reported - Leicester
£27,407 per year22 salaries reported - Truro
£25,466 per year8 salaries reported - Prescot
£23,722 per year193 salaries reported
What’s on Quora?
Is medical coding a nice career? What about the salary?
Coding is a great job and a good career choice. I have been in coding since the 90’s and have found it to be rewarding and lucrative.
This is a good entry level job into the healthcare industry. I started coding orthopedic surgeries and moved from there to otolaryngology. During this time I began to teach physicians and residents about coding and documentation and expanded my skill set to include compliance with federal billing and coding requirements. This allowed me to move into physician practice compliance, 90% of which is knowing the ins and outs of professional coding and the compliance rules that govern their use. That led to a career in some of the larger healthcare companies managing their compliance programs, educating staff and auditing performance. My salary for the last 15 years has been in the six figure range.
What I am saying is, you won’t stay a coder, though you can, if you want to. Many people go into this business with the express desire to work from home, coding for a larger coding company. These are great jobs with flexibility. You can work in this field for years and do well.
To make a career, though you will take coding as your base and move forward. That was my career path.
Someone said that all of this coding would be automated and computerized. It’s an interesting idea, but the basis of coding is not a science, it does not have black and white edges, it’s pretty much all gray. Rules are contradictory, descriptions vague, guidance and instruction are often couched in soft language that allows for multiple interpretations. That makes computerization of coding difficult. It is also why physicians and facilities challenge government audits of their billing and consistently win. Interpretation of medical record documentation is an art and not a science because each interaction between a provider and a patient is unique to that patient. No two episodes of care are the same, though they may be similar.
Good luck.
Top Answer
If you love learning and researching, solving puzzles and trying to find the best answer to a question, you might enjoy medical coding. On the other hand, some coding jobs are primarily repetitive, high-production work and not nearly as interesting. These jobs can give you carpal tunnel syndrome (G56.00) and a headache (R51)! So finding the right fit for you can be challenging and take some time.
Breaking into the medical coding field can be difficult. Job security and demand are high, pay is good (not great!), and training time is not excessive. However, a newly certified coder with no coding work experience will have a heck of a time finding a job. In my opinion, for the inexperienced person who wants to become a coder, an entry-level position in the business side of medicine is the place to start. Look for something that touches on medical records – medical office receptionist, medical records clerk, medical office assistant, etc. Let your prospective employers know you would like to be involved with coding and billing tasks and duties, in addition to your primary role. When you see the opportunity to do some work in this area, take it and run with it! Now you’re gaining coding experience, and you can start a course of self-study or a formal series of classes, pass the certification exam, and at this point you are a certified coder with experience.
Be very, very, very careful with for-profit coding schools. I’ve read countless posts and talked with dozens of inexperienced, certified coders coming out of these schools who simply cannot get hired as a coder.
