Medical Coding, Is Continuing Education Needed For A Career

A career in medical coding is ideal for a lot of people because it is a lucrative way to make a living that does not come with the usual stresses of a regular 9-5 job.

In fact, on the contrary, choosing a medical coding career is choosing to make a living with flexible time and work from home benefits.

The question remains though: is continuing education needed for a career in medical coding?

The simple answer to this is yes.

Medical coding as a career comes with a new set of terminology and medical nuances that some training is required.

It is important to realize that medical coding relates very strongly to the practice of medicine and this is an ever changing and evolving field. As new innovations come onto the medical scene, both medical and surgical, set up coding parameters will have to change to accomodate these changes

In order to put yourself at the forefront of your new career and improve your chances of career advancement, it is important to involve yourself in continuing education

You need to be able to understand and learn all there is to learn about medical coding. This is because you as the medical encoder are in charge of assigning specific codes to different medical services and procedures to enable healthcare providers to be able to bill for services rendered.

It is for the purpose of ensuring that patients are appropriately billed that medical coders are in demand in the industry.

If your strong points are organization and you enjoy administrative work, learning medical coding will be easy for you. There are specialized courses and trainings available for individuals who want to learn the special ways used in medical coding.

You will need to get some background knowledge on this field and predetermine where it is you plan to go with your career i.e how do you want your career to pan out.

It is with this knowledge that you will be better able to determine which edical coding training program best suites your purposes. You must realize that not all the courses available are tailored to meet your individual needs so you will need to do a little research to find which medical coding course best suits your purpose.

Having said this, all accredited medical coding courses will give you the basics that you need to get a start in this field and make available to you the knowledge you need to pass the necessary examinations to obtain your certificates.


Making the effort to go the extra mile and invest in continuing education pays dividends in the development of your medical coding career.

And there really is a large demand and wide scope for medical coders.

Hospitals, clinics, polyclinics, general practitoners offices and private practice physicians all have requirement for medical coding to ensure appropriate bills are issued for individual procedures



We suggest you aim to obtain certification with bodies that are recognized nationally so if you are in the united states, the American Academy of Professional Coders yshould be your objective. They offer different levels of certification based on the examinations passed.

Obtaining certification from the more recognized national bodies increases your chances of getting the medical coding placement of your choice.


If you are serious about a career in medical coding, it is better to take the examinations and acquire these certifications.

Once you have obtained your basic certification and gained some experience on the job, shop around for other courses you can take to further enhance your career



The American Academy of Professional Coders offers Specialty Credentials that will enable an individual to prove their expertise within their present focus or they can even use this to jump start their medical coding career into a different type of specialization altogether.


Obviously the ultimate objective is to gain enough experience and profile to open a medical coding business of your own