Health Information Specialists

Duties and Responsibilities:

Health Information Specialists obtain, post, and analyze medical, workload, finance, and insurance data.  They ensure that this information is properly recorded into medical records so practitioners can plan and evaluate health care provided to patients.

There are a variety of job specialties within this field including Registered Record Administrators, Accredited Record Technicians, and Certified Coding Specialists.  Administrators coordinate the various information management responsibilities and supervise record technicians and coding specialists.  Record technicians ensure medical records are accurate, coordinate reimbursement, and maintain disease registries for research.  Coding specialists assign and post correct diagnosis and procedure codes to records and report codes to insurance companies.

Health information specialists work in hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, physician offices, and many other medical settings.

Average Salary:   

1.         $20,000 - $25,000 (Coding Specialists) 

2.       $23,000 - $30,000 (Record Technicians) 

3.       $30,000 - $40,000 (Record Administrators)

Educational Requirements:

Students should take high school courses in business, information management, science, math, and English.

Coding specialists must have a high school diploma or GED certificate.  Training is usually conducted on the job, but classes are offered at technical schools and community colleges.  To become certified, specialists must pass an examination.

Accredited record technicians must earn an associate's degree from an accredited college program or from the American Health Information Management

Record administrators must complete a bachelor's degree program in the field and pass a certification examination.

Do you think you would like to be a Health Information Specialist?

I wouldn’t want to be a Health Information Specialist because it doesn’t interest me at all.