Information Provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook
Employment is expected to grow much faster than average. Job prospects should be very good; technicians with a strong background in medical coding will be in particularly high demand. Entrants usually have an associate degree; courses include anatomy, physiology, medical terminology, statistics, and computer science. This is one of the few health occupations in which there is little or no direct contact with patients.
On average, Medical Records and Health Information Technicians earn $ 28,030 per year.
Job Opportunities for Medical Records and Health Information Technicians are expected to:
Increase faster than average.
Every time a patient receives health care, a record is maintained of the observations, medical or surgical interventions, and treatment outcomes. This record includes information that the patient provides concerning his or her symptoms and medical history, the results of examinations, reports of x rays and laboratory tests, diagnoses, and treatment plans. Medical records and health information technicians organize and evaluate these records for completeness and accuracy.
Medical records and health information technicians generally obtain an associate degree from a community or junior college. Typically, community and junior colleges offer flexible course scheduling or online distance learning courses. In addition to general education, coursework includes medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, legal aspects of health information, health data standards, coding and abstraction of data, statistics, database management, quality improvement methods, and computer science.
Medical records and health information technicians held about 170,000 jobs in 2006. About 2 out of 5 jobs were in hospitals. The rest were mostly in offices of physicians, nursing care facilities, outpatient care centers, and home health care services. Insurance firms that deal in health matters employ a small number of health information technicians to tabulate and analyze health information. Public health departments also employ technicians to supervise data collection from health care institutions and to assist in research.
