AAPC 2012 Salary Survey Results - carjjen

Posted: Nov 05, 2012

I am a member of AAPC and just received and reviewed AAPC's 2012 Salary Survey Results. You must be a member to read the survey. Because of the alarming wage decline as a medical transcriptionist, I decided to become certified as a coder and AAPC certification can be achieved sooner than AHIMA certification. I took AAPC's online course in February, achieved the CPC-H certification in September and have an apprentice designation. I am now searching for employment. According to the AAPC survey, there is an upward trend towards facility employment (which may be a reflection of providers' decision to sell their practices to facilities). The survey numbers consist of AAPC respondents who live in all 50 states and work in various places; small, medium or large group practices, hospital inpatient, or hospital outpatient facilities. The survey does not indicate how many respondents there were but they consisted of coders, billers, practice managers, auditors and educators. There are 120,000 AAPC members. Keep in mind that the recession has affected all industries but it was quite discouraging to see on the AAPC survey results that there is a 23.41% unemployment rate for apprentice coders. Actually, all AAPC survey results have percentages that seem inconsistent and there isn't a salary figure for certified versus noncertified coders but 54% of employers today require certification. According to the AAPC survey table, medium group practice coders make the most, with solo practice, hospital outpatient, large group practice and inpatient coders making less, in that order. Isn't hospital inpatient hospital the most difficult coding? How could a CPC be an inpatient coder? One definitely needs experience to achieve a good salary and it takes 10 years to earn the survey's average salary. The salaries for beginning coders have not changed much in five years, while those with significant experience are seeing larger increases. A table in the survey indicates that the unemployment rate for AHIMA- credentialed coders is higher than the unemployment rate for CPCs (but still well below the national average of 8 percent). I have read elsewhere that the CCS credential is preferred and would make a job easier to find, compared to the CPC credential. I am hoping with my associate's degree and decades of anatomy, physiology, medicine and procedure terminology experience that I can negotiate a higher salary, but the survey results were an eye opener for me. I'm not at all dismayed or regret having become CPC-H-A certified but it seems it is going to be very difficult to find a job soon. Even if I found a job as a receptionist or coding assistant, that would not remove my apprentice designation.