Health Information Specialist

Duties and Responsibilities:

They work to obtain, post, and analyze medical, workload, and finance, and insurance data.  Health information specialists have to ensure that this information is properly recorded into medical records that way practitioners can plan and evaluate health care provided to patients. There are many job specialties within this field which include registered record administrators, which manage the management of the information, accredited record technicians, which ensure medical information is accurate, and certified coding specialists which assign and correct diagnosis.

Average Salary:

$20,000 - $25,000 (Coding specialists)

$23,000 - $30,000 (Record technicians)

$30,000 - $40,000 (Record administrators)

Education:

  To become a coding specialist you must have either a high school diploma or a GED. Usually training is provided on the job. To become certified you must go through an examination.  Accredited record technicians must have an associate’s degree from an accredited college program or from the American Health Information Management Association Independent Study Program and afterwards they must pass an examination. To become a record administrator you must complete a bachelor’s degree in the field and pass an examination.