Career

Medical Records Specialist

You read a patient's chart and turn the care they actually got into the exact codes that hospitals and insurance companies run on, so the record is accurate and the bill is right.

O*NET profile

Median pay (US)

$51,140

2025 · $24.59 an hour

O*NET source

Job outlook

Much faster than average

O*NET's band for this category is 7% or higher, 2024-2034

O*NET source

To get in the door

Training or an associate degree

Most of these occupations require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Openings a year

14,200

projected, nationally

O*NET source

What the day actually looks like

Review patients' records for timeliness, completeness, and accuracy (BLS duty list).
Use classification systems to assign clinical codes for diagnoses, procedures, medical services, and related information.
Enter patient demographic and treatment data into electronic health record systems; O*NET flags Epic Systems as in-demand software for this job and MEDITECH as a hot technology, which are two different labels in that database.
Maintain and retrieve records for insurance reimbursement and data analysis.
Act as gatekeeper for patient files, releasing records only to authorized people under legal privacy rules, and query physicians when a diagnosis or note is unclear.

Skills you need first

Analytical skill: BLS says these workers 'must interpret medical documentation to assess diagnoses, which they then code into a patient's medical record'.
Detail orientation, because BLS notes they 'must be precise about verifying and coding patient information'.
Integrity and discretion, since protecting patient confidentiality is a legal duty, not a preference.
Interpersonal skill to discuss discrepancies with physicians, finance staff, and nurses.
Comfort with computers, EHR software, spreadsheets, and database queries; O*NET's technology list for this occupation includes Epic, Microsoft Excel, and SQL.
Groundwork in anatomy, physiology, and medical terminology; BLS specifically says high school students benefit from biology, computer science, and anatomy classes.

How long people stay

No published figure exists for how long people typically stay in this role, and that gap is real. What BLS does publish is that many of the roughly 14,200 annual openings come from workers who 'transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.' A 2023 survey of 2,526 health information professionals conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for AHIMA found 66 percent reported understaffing in the previous two years, and among understaffed organizations 76 percent saw increased burnout and 48 percent saw higher staff turnover. Those percentages describe organizations, not individual careers, so read them as workplace conditions rather than as a tenure number. One documented difference from most health jobs: there is no direct hands-on patient care, which BLS notes, so the emotional load differs from bedside work.

Where it is needed, and the different ways to do it

Real and measurable. BLS counted 194,800 jobs in 2024, projects 7 percent growth through 2034, and projects about 14,200 openings each year on average over the decade. BLS attributes demand to an aging population needing more medical services and rising prevalence of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. On the shortage question, the source is AHIMA: in a survey of 2,526 health information professionals conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for AHIMA and published October 2023, 66 percent reported understaffing within the previous two years, with consequences including increased burnout (76 percent), higher turnover (48 percent), reimbursement problems (48 percent), and lowered data quality (37 percent). Close to home, the May 2025 OEWS release counts 7,440 of these jobs in Ohio and 1,810 in the Cleveland metro area (data.bls.gov/oes, occupation code 29-2072). One honest counterweight: BLS itself warns in the same outlook section that growing adoption of AI-powered coding tools may affect demand for these workers.

Hospitals

The largest employer at 28 percent of jobs, with a median wage of $56,520 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2024 wage data). Because hospitals never close, BLS notes specialists here may work shifts including nights or weekends. In Cleveland this means the big systems and their health information management departments.

Offices of physicians and clinics

19 percent of jobs, the second largest setting and the lowest paying of the top five at a $45,620 median (BLS, May 2024 wage data). Smaller teams, so one person often handles coding, records requests, and billing follow-up together.

Corporate and health-system central offices

Management of companies and enterprises accounts for 8 percent of jobs and pays the highest median of the top industries, $60,750 (BLS, May 2024 wage data). This is centralized coding and data work for a whole system rather than one building.

Outsourced coding and billing companies

Administrative and support services holds 8 percent of jobs at a $49,590 median, and professional, scientific, and technical services another 7 percent at $49,970 (BLS, May 2024 wage data). These are vendors that hospitals and practices hire to do coding for them.

Nursing and skilled nursing facilities

The BLS OEWS May 2025 release counts 9,790 medical records specialists employed in nursing care facilities nationally (data.bls.gov/oes, occupation code 29-2072). Long-term care records track months and years of a resident's care rather than a single visit.

Cancer registry and oncology data

Listed here as a credential pathway, not as a measured job market: no employment or wage data specific to cancer registrars was retrieved, so this entry is not comparable to the five settings above. Cuyahoga Community College offers a Cancer Registrar Post-Degree Certificate, which requires an existing allied health or nursing associate degree plus program director approval, so it is a step up from general coding rather than a starting point.

AI and this career

exposure: high

Exposure is high, and unusually, BLS says so in print. The Occupational Outlook Handbook's own job outlook section for this occupation states that 'the increase in adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions that make the medical coding process more efficient may affect the demand for these workers.' BLS attaches that kind of caveat to very few healthcare occupations. The reason is that the core task, mapping documented care onto standardized codes, is pattern work over text, which is what current systems do well. High task exposure is not the same as the job disappearing: BLS still projects 7 percent growth and about 14,200 openings a year. The profession is discussing what the change looks like. An opinion piece published on AHIMA's artificial intelligence page proposes a framework in which 'medical coders ultimately transform into medical coding validators.' That is one author's argument published by the association, not an official AHIMA position. What AHIMA's own survey work shows is appetite for retraining: in the 2023 NORC survey conducted for AHIMA, 75 percent of health information professionals said upskilling was needed amid AI adoption and 72 percent pointed to a need for new training areas. Read the growth number and the AI warning together: more records to process, fewer keystrokes per record.

Tasks likely to change

First-pass code assignment on routine, high-volume encounters shifts to autonomous coding software, with the specialist checking output rather than originating it. An opinion piece published by AHIMA proposes exactly that path, coders becoming coding validators.
Chart abstraction and data entry get faster as language models read clinician notes, so time likely moves from typing toward reviewing, correcting, and documenting why the machine was wrong.
Productivity per coder likely rises, and headcount growth may lag record volume. This is exactly the mechanism BLS names when it warns AI adoption may affect demand, and it is a particular risk for entry-level openings.
Expected skills change. Three quarters of health information professionals surveyed by NORC for AHIMA reported needing upskilling, and AHIMA's public AI page urges members to lead 'governance and oversight of non-clinical artificial intelligence systems in healthcare,' which is a different job description than coding alone.

Tasks that stay human

Accountability. A wrong code is a billing error, a compliance exposure, and sometimes a legal problem, and a named human still signs off on it.
Judgment on incomplete or contradictory documentation. BLS lists meeting with nurses and physicians 'to clarify diagnoses or to get additional information' as a core duty, and a model cannot query a physician and take responsibility for the answer.
The privacy gatekeeper role. BLS describes these workers as gatekeepers who 'ensure access only to authorized people' under administrative, ethical, and legal requirements. Automating the reading of a record does not transfer the legal duty over who may see it.
Oversight of the tools themselves. AHIMA positions health information professionals to govern and audit AI systems, which converts part of the exposure into work.

What medical records specialist work may look like

Picture the job about ten years out. You open a work queue that software has already been through. An autonomous coding engine read last night's charts, proposed codes for the straightforward visits, and set aside the ones it could not resolve. Your morning may go mostly to that set-aside pile: the chart where the physician documented two conflicting diagnoses, the record where the note and the lab result disagree, the encounter where the code the machine chose would draw a denial or would quietly misstate what was done to a person. You write a query to the physician and wait for an answer. Part of your week may go to the software itself, pulling samples of its output, tracking where its accuracy drifts by service line, writing up error rates for a compliance committee, because someone has to be accountable for what the system produces and it will not be the system. An opinion piece published by AHIMA argues that coders may become coding validators, and that is likely a harder job than the one it replaces rather than an easier one, probably better paid for the people who can do it. The honest risk sits at the other end of the career: if one specialist plus good software clears the volume three specialists used to clear, employers may post fewer entry-level coding jobs, which is precisely why BLS wrote that AI adoption may affect demand even while projecting the occupation to grow. None of this is settled. It is where the published evidence currently points.

Sources:[1][2][3][4]

Open questions on this career

Wording that treated 'medical coders transforming into medical coding validators' as AHIMA's official position was corrected in three places. That phrase comes from one author's opinion piece published on AHIMA's website, not from the association itself.
The Tri-C cancer registrar credential was relabeled in two places. Tri-C calls it a post-degree certificate, not a short-term certificate, and it requires an allied health or nursing associate degree plus program director approval. A student cannot start there out of high school.
MEDITECH was relabeled. O*NET flags it as a 'hot technology,' not as 'in-demand' software. Those are two separate labels in that database. The same softening was applied to the technology list in the skills section.

Pay and outlook come from O*NET, the US Department of Labor's occupation site, and every figure links back to it. We do not publish tuition or cost figures here: those change often, so use each school's own page and phone number below. Tell Mr. Mendoza if anything looks wrong.

See somebody do it

Medical Records Specialists Career VideoCareerOneStop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. Verified live in a browser on 2026-07-25; the page hosts the video player and a full written transcript. This is the career video page BLS links from the Occupational Outlook Handbook.Medical Records Specialists Career VideoCareerOneStop official YouTube channel. Verified live on 2026-07-25, not marked unavailable. This is the same U.S. Department of Labor video, hosted on YouTube.

Where you can train for it

4 programs

Read these as minimums, not targets.Meeting the numbers below is what lets you apply; it is not what gets you in. Selective programs admit far fewer people than apply, and admitted students are usually well above the minimum. Call the program and ask what last year's admitted class actually looked like. That one phone call is worth more than any number on this page.

Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C)

Cleveland, OH · Associate of Applied Science Degree in Health Information Management Technology

Health Information Management Technology

What they ask for

Overall GPA 2.5.
Prerequisite courses: ENG-1010 College Composition I, BIO-2331 Anatomy and Physiology I, IT-1090 Computer Applications, and HTEC 1050 Introduction to Medical Terminology or HTEC 1060 Medical Terminology I.
Eligibility for MATH-1410.

The closest option to John Hay High School. The program page states it is accepting applications for Fall 2026 and Fall 2027. Tri-C also offers a Medical Billing Specialist short-term certificate (needs only eligibility for ENG-1010 and a 1000-level MATH) and a Cancer Registrar Post-Degree Certificate. The phone number listed is the program contact, Joslyn Dalton, MS, RHIA (joslyn.dalton@tri-c.edu); the general college line printed on the same page is 216-987-6000. No cost figure is published here on purpose: open Tri-C's own tuition and fees page or call the college.

Program page 216-987-4403

Lakeland Community College

Kirtland, OH · Associate of Applied Science, 65 credit hours, typically two years, per Lakeland's official program guide dated February 2024. That guide states graduates are eligible to sit for the RHIT exam through AHIMA, which depends on CAHIIM accreditation. The newest Lakeland document located refers to accreditation reaffirmed through 2023, so confirm current accreditation status with CAHIIM's directory or by calling the program before counting on RHIT eligibility.

Health Information Management Technology

What they ask for

Lakeland states that students in a nursing or allied health program complete additional requirements that vary by program, and that those may include a criminal background check; students present at a hospital or clinical affiliation site must complete one.
A Health Technology Admissions Form must be submitted to the Admissions Office after meeting an admission option.

Kirtland is in Lake County, the second Northeast Ohio option after Tri-C. A GPA minimum, a prerequisite course list, and application deadlines were not printed on the Lakeland pages checked. Call 440.525.7490, which the program guide lists for program director Christine Jerson, R.H.I.A. (CJerson@lakelandcc.edu), for those details, for current accreditation status, and for cost. Lakeland's program page also links its own tuition and fees document.

Program page 440.525.7490

Columbus State Community College

Columbus, OH · Associate degree in Health Information Management Technology; graduates who pass the AHIMA national certification exam earn the RHIT credential. Certificates in Medical Coding and Health Information Management Technician are also offered.

Health Information Management Technology

What they ask for

High school graduate or GED equivalency.
Complete the school Placement Test, with placement into ENGL 1100 Beginning Composition and placement into STAT 1350 or completion of MATH 1025.
Completion of the Health Information Management Technician Certificate.
Applications are available October 1 through December 31; seats are limited, applicants are accepted first come first served until programs are full, and the college states that submission of an application does not guarantee admission.
After acceptance, students must complete and pass a drug screen and background check at the student's expense.

A final grade of C or higher is required in each course to stay eligible for the degree or certificate. Program inquiries go to himt@cscc.edu. The department page prints (614) 287-5353 together with jroberts@cscc.edu as the contact for Jane Roberts, MS, RHIA, so this is a program contact number.

Program page (614) 287-5353

University of Cincinnati Online

Cincinnati, OH · Bachelor of Health Information Management (BHIM)

Online Bachelor of Health Information Management

What they ask for

An associate degree from any CAHIIM accredited program, or any regionally or nationally accredited associate degree with prerequisites required.
Applicants without a CAHIIM accredited associate degree must complete seven specified Body of Knowledge courses including Human Disease, Anatomy and Physiology, Medical Terminology, and Medical Coding.
Official transcripts from high school and all prior colleges must be sent directly to UC.
Published application deadlines: November 15, 2026 for Spring 2027; March 15, 2027 for Summer 2027; July 15, 2027 for Fall 2027.

This is a degree-completion path, not a direct-from-high-school entry point. The realistic route for a John Hay student is an associate degree at Tri-C or Lakeland first, then this for the bachelor's. BLS notes that a higher credential is how medical records specialists advance into health information technologist or health services manager roles. For tuition, application fees, and any current fee waivers, call 513-556-6826 or open UC Online's own program fees page.

Program page 513-556-6826

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