What Is the Pay for a Medical Office Specialist?
The term medical office specialist can encompass a wide range of jobs and responsibilities. Medical office specialists work in physicians' offices, hospitals and other health care facilities as accounting and billing clerks, coding specialists, administrative secretaries and office managers. The salaries earned by medical office specialists vary with their specific job duties, as well as the settings in which they work.
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Accounting Specialists
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Medical office accounting specialists handle billings, collections, patient insurance, office financial records and accounts receivable. Accounting and billing specialists earn an average of $31,000 to $35,000 a year, according to data from Indeed.com. Accounting and billing specialists in hospitals usually earn higher salaries than their counterparts in physicians' offices and other facilities.
Coding Specialists
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Coding specialists code patient records for insurance purposes. These specialists assign a code to each medical procedure or diagnosis. Using classification software, coding specialists help determine the amount of reimbursement for services the physician's office or hospital will receive from insurance or Medicare. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical records and health information technicians earn a median of $28,030 a year. Indeed.com estimates the average annual salaries for coding specialists at about $35,000 a year.
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Administrative Secretaries
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Medical secretaries have responsibilities similar to those of secretaries and administrative assistants in other settings. In addition, they may record patient medical histories, handle patient records and insurance billings. Medical secretaries should be familiar with insurance and billing procedures. Medical secretaries had median annual earnings of $28,090, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Annual salaries ranged from $23,250 to $34,210.
Medical Office Managers
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Specialists with medical office experience may advance professionally to become office managers. They oversee medical office operations, managing personnel, patient records, billing and other aspects of office operations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that medical office managers earned a median of $73,340 a year. Office managers in hospitals earned the highest salaries, averaging $78,660 annually. Managers in physicians' offices earned an average of $67,540 a year.
Considerations
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In small medical facilities, such as some physicians' offices, medical office specialists may have secretarial, coding, billing and other responsibilities. In larger facilities, they are more likely to specialize in one aspect of medical office work. Office specialist salaries can be as low as $19,060 a year or as high as $45,260, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Juhan Sonin
