Cracking the Code: The Complexities of Hiring Medical Coders

Brian Moore June 5, 2025 Reading Time: < 3 minutes

You could call medical coders the interpreters of the healthcare ecosystem, converting the complex language of medical procedures, services, equipment, and diagnoses into the standardized codes needed for successful insurance claims. Their work contributes to an organization’s financial health and operational integrity.

A coder’s vital input ensures accurate billing, compliance with ever-evolving regulations and — ultimately — appropriate reimbursement from insurance payers. Healthcare organizations must get this important piece of their revenue cycle right, but hiring medical coders is increasingly difficult. And as demand for medical coders and other medical records specialists grows — increasing 9% each year through 2033, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)¹ — so does the hiring challenge.

The Significant Challenge of Limited Medical Coding Talent

The BLS expects 15,000 medical coder and medical billing openings annually through 2033². Yet healthcare organizations aren’t meeting current demand, let alone future needs, according to two of the most recent surveys on the topic.

66% of respondents to a 2023 American Health Information Management Association survey reported understaffing of health information professionals, including coders, within the past two years.³
The American Medical Association reported a 30% shortage of medical coders in April 2023.⁴

The challenge in hiring medical coders isn’t just in finding talent to fill vacancies. It’s finding talent with the right training and coding skills — then keeping them on staff. Becoming a medical coder requires rigorous training and a significant time investment to achieve proper certification, limiting the candidate pool.

Like the training, the work itself can be demanding. Coders must review notes, documentation, and records related to patient care, then process large amounts of data. They often spend long periods at a desk in front of a monitor inputting codes — selecting the right ones out of tens of thousands of codes available. It’s a taxing process that requires an analytical mind and attention to detail. For this reason, among others, attrition can be high. This loss, on top of resignations and aging employees, creates openings faster than organizations are hiring medical coders.

A Competitive Landscape for Top Coding Talent

Like most fields in healthcare, medical coding is ever changing, reflecting advances in technology, changes in insurance guidelines, updates to regulations, and the dynamics of the workforce. It all adds up to a feeding frenzy for the top talent. Healthcare organizations are dipping into the same shallow pool of skilled medical coders. Attracting and hiring the best candidates is incredibly challenging.

To find ideal medical coding candidates, organizations must have specialized resources and a broad reach for an effective recruitment program. An in-house search for the right medical coder can drain significant time and resources. An effective alternative is an experienced staffing partner like Medix that specializes in revenue cycle management staffing and hiring medical coders.

How Medix Simplifies Medical Coder Hiring

Specialized expertise and network: This is where Medix steps in as an essential partner in hiring medical coders. We offer specialized expertise and an expansive network of over 3 million candidates nationwide, simplifying and accelerating recruitment and hiring. With a deep understanding of the medical coding niche cultivated over 20+ years, Medix knows what types of medical coding candidates will thrive in various settings. This allows us to support local hiring needs and the growing demand for remote coding talent alike.

Rigorous screening and qualification process: Our vetting process sets us apart. Before candidates move on, they go through our comprehensive skills assessments and certification verification. To ensure candidates are a match for your team, we also evaluate how they’ll fit into your workplace culture and environment using our proprietary MyPrint assessment. Our commitment is to provide healthcare organizations with talent who not only possess the necessary medical coding skills but also align with operational requirements and culture.

Reduced time-to-hire: Medical coder vacancies can directly impact revenue flow and increase workload on existing staff, so quickly filling openings is critical. That’s why we work with urgency to find talent for our clients. Our efficient recruitment process shortens the timeline dramatically, allowing organizations to maintain a consistent revenue cycle and avoid costly backlogs.

Here’s how this works in the real world: We recently partnered with a major health system that had a backlog of medical charts that threatened to delay the timely processing of patient charges, potentially hindering revenue cycle efficiency and impacting the organization’s finances. A solution tailored to the clients needs resulted in cutting down the onboarding process from three weeks to five days. The end result: Client achieved its lowest queue volume in 10 years. This demonstrates the meaningful benefits of minimizing vacancy periods, including reduced burden on current employees and improved financial stability.

Access to flexible staffing solutions: Sometimes, vacancies don’t require a permanent placement right away. We get that. That’s why Medix offers a range of flexible staffing solutions, including temporary, contract-to-hire, and direct-hire solutions. Our contract-to-hire model is ideal for the current market and is what drew the health system above to Medix. This model allows organizations to “try before you buy,” evaluating a candidate’s fit and performance within their team before committing to a permanent hire. This is more economical and also keeps the invaluable expertise gained by the talent within your organization when you convert them to a permanent employee. This strategic approach to hiring medical coders empowers organizations to make informed decisions and build a strong, lasting team.

Tailored approach: For the major health system above, Medix worked closely with the client to develop a customized screening and onboarding process that streamlined hiring of qualified coders, reducing the onboarding process from three weeks down to five days. This also allowed the client to hand select which talent would be placed on the project.

Partner With Medix for Top Medical Coders

The challenges of hiring medical coders are complex and here to stay — for the immediate future, at least. It’s not going to get any easier for healthcare organizations to build their team of medical coders, unless they work with a specialized staffing partner like Medix.

Our deep industry knowledge, comprehensive vetting processes, and flexible staffing solutions empower you to efficiently source, screen, and secure the qualified medical coding talent essential for your organization’s success. To learn more about partnering with Medix for medical coding talent and cracking the code to successful hiring, contact us today.

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