Medical Records Specialist: The BLS Occupation Behind Billing and Coding (2026)

Key takeaway: When this site quotes a wage or outlook figure, it comes from the BLS occupation Medical Records Specialists (SOC 29-2072), because BLS does not publish separate statistics for coders or billers. Understanding what that occupation includes helps you read the numbers correctly: they cover experienced hospital coders and entry-level clerks alike.

If an ad says “coders earn $70,000” with no source, this page is why we will not repeat it. One occupation, many jobs: the table blends experienced hospital coders and entry-level clerks.

BLS definition

BLS describes medical records specialists as workers who compile, process, and maintain medical records of hospital and clinic patients consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements, including classifying and coding diagnoses and procedures for reimbursement, registries, and research. In the 2018 revision of the occupational classification, the older title medical records and health information technicians was split, and coders and billing-side record staff landed here.

That is why our salary and outlook pages keep saying “medical records specialists” even when you searched for “medical coder.”

Pay percentiles (national, May 2025)

Source: BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 29-2072. A percentile is the wage below which that share of workers fall; the 10th percentile is the wage a new entrant is more likely to see than the median.

Employment and outlook

BLS counted 194,720 medical records specialists in May 2025. Its projections program estimates employment of 194,800 in 2024 growing to 208,600 in 2034, a 7.1 percent increase, with about 14,200 openings a year. See job outlook.

How to read our state pages

Each state page shows the same occupation at the state level. A state with a high median but low employment per 1,000 jobs has fewer positions; the location quotient shows whether the occupation is concentrated there relative to the national average. We do not invent city wages when BLS did not publish them.

School ads mix a BLS table with a job it does not describe

When a school quotes BLS and then shows a photo of a laptop on a couch, they are mixing a real occupation table with a job that table does not describe. Use the percentiles. Ignore the furniture.