Below are average salaries, by specialty, for the 10,000-plus AAPC members who responded to the 2009 survey.

Note: Other factors besides medical coding specialty could be affecting these averages, including number of respondents for each specialty, geographical locations, career experience and other factors not related to specialty.

$43,558 Anesthesia and Pain Management

$41,966 Cardiology

$48,145 Cardiovascular & Thoracic

$45,529 Dermatology

$41,538 Emergency Medicine

$39,900 Family Practice

$42,179 Gastrointestinal

$41,968 General Surgery

$42,725 Internal Medicine

$42,305 Obstetrics/Gynecology

$42,927 Orthopedic

$43,207 Otolaryngology

$41,533 Pediatrics

$46,843 Plastic and Reconstructive

$48,501 Rhematology

$44,024 Urology

$49,328 Radiology

Specialty Certification Exam Prep Training Camps: CANPC™, CCC™, CEMC™, COBGC™, & COSC™.

Demand for health information management skills is actually growing, and coders who figure out how to to think out of the box can climb the career ladder.

If you search ‘medical coder’ on Internet job postings, you’ll come up with piles of offers, AAPC speaker Susan Goldsmith told attendees at the national conference in April. But you can find other, perhaps higher-paying jobs that require medical coding skills if you search job postings for these position titles:

• Claims and Pricing Implementation Specialist
• Claims Operations Manager
• Medical Review Nurse
• Grievance and Appeals Personnel
• Compliance Manager
• Auditors
• Actuary
• Provider Relations Representative
• Medical Director/Chief Medical Officer
• Accounts Receivable Analyst

Many of these jobs require years experience as a medical coder, Goldsmith notes, but many employers will give you a break on the experience front if you have a certification such as a CPC or an RHIT.

Don’t have a CPC? Prep and take the exam at a location near you.