Healthcare practitioners
Medical records specialist
Compile, process, and maintain medical records of hospital and clinic patients in a manner consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements of the healthcare system. Classify medical and healthcare concepts, including diagnosis, procedures, medical services, and equipment, into the healthcare industry's numerical coding system. Includes medical coders.
Median pay
$51,140
Growth to 2035
+8%
faster than average
Openings a year
14,000
Time to qualify*
12 months
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Medical records specialist
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- Postsecondary nondegree award
- On-the-job training
- None
- Prior experience
- None
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Outdoors in all weather
Exposure to disease
Medical records specialist: 19% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- Protect the security of medical records to ensure that confidentiality is maintained.
- Review records for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with regulations.
- Scan patients' health records into electronic formats.
- Release information to persons or agencies according to regulations.
- Enter data, such as demographic characteristics, history and extent of disease, diagnostic procedures, or treatment into computer.
- Maintain or operate a variety of health record indexes or storage and retrieval systems to collect, classify, store, or analyze information.
- Process patient admission or discharge documents.
- Retrieve patient medical records for physicians, technicians, or other medical personnel.
Also called: Coder · Health Information Clerk · Health Information Specialist · Health Information Technician (Health Information Tech) · Health Records Specialist · HIM Clerk (Health Information Management Clerk) · Medical Coder · Medical Records Clerk
Outlook and AI
Medical records specialists held 200,700 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 216,300 by 2035 (+8%, faster than average; all jobs: +3.5%).
Demand change, productivity change - share increases as the demand for health care services and complexity of medical coding grow. This demand for medical records specialists will be partially offset by the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools that make the medical coding process more efficient.
Compare with
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