According to PayScale.com, medical billing and coding careers are smart paths to be on. Medical billing and coding jobs in New Orleans are on the rise, as they are nationally. This is partly due to the fact that our population is aging, and partly due to the fact that people are living longer thanks to constant improvements in medicine.
PayScale reports that New Orleans medical billing and coding jobs have a median entry level salary of over $33,000 per year. The jobs with the highest starting salaries are regularly found in hospitals. As your years of experience go up, so will your salary. For example, people with three to five years of experience in New Orleans make a median salary of $38,460. People with eleven or more years of experience make $45,999.
Again, those are the median salaries. Depending upon where exactly you find a job, you might make less, or you might make more. Ten percent of medical coders make $45,000 as their starting salary.
Jobs in medical coding and billing also have room to grow. After working as a medical coder for a while, you could gain the experience necessary to step into a job as a certified coding specialist (with a median salary of $41,164) or a medical coding auditor (with a median salary of $50,331). The cost of living in New Orleans is quite low, so a person could support themselves nicely on even an entry level medical coder’s salary.
Plus, the majority of medical coders and billers in New Orleans also receive job benefits. According to PayScale, 58% of entry level medical coders receive dental, medical, and vision benefits. 19% receive just medical benefits, and only 10% receive no benefits at all.
Medical billing and coding careers are an excellent choice for people in New Orleans. Whether you’re looking to start your first career, change career paths, or get back to work after a few years at home, a certification in medical billing or medical coding can be your path to a more successful future. In just eighteen weeks, you can complete the necessary courses to pass your certification exam, which is all you need (plus your high school diploma) to qualify for entry level medical coding jobs.
To learn more, contact us or stop by our campus. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have.