Skills
Medical Billing and Coding Specialist Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in medical billing and coding specialists, and how to build and show them.
Medical Billing and Coding Specialists need technical skills such as icd-10-cm diagnosis coding, cpt and hcpcs level ii procedure coding, and medical terminology and anatomy, plus people skills like attention to detail and analytical thinking. They also use tools such as Encoder software such as 3M or Optum EncoderPro and EHR systems such as Epic or athenahealth.
Technical (hard) skills
- ICD-10-CM diagnosis coding
- CPT and HCPCS Level II procedure coding
- Medical terminology and anatomy
- Claims submission and denial management
- Payer rules and modifiers
- HIPAA compliance
People (soft) skills
- Attention to detail
- Analytical thinking
- Self-discipline for remote work
- Clear written communication with providers
Tools, equipment and technology
- Encoder software such as 3M or Optum EncoderPro
- EHR systems such as Epic or athenahealth
- Practice management and billing systems
- Claims clearinghouses
- ICD-10-CM, CPT and HCPCS code books
- Spreadsheets for tracking A/R and denials
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how medical billing and coding specialists put their skills to work:
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “ICD-10-CM diagnosis coding” and “CPT and HCPCS Level II procedure coding.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “attention to detail,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as CPC (AAPC) near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our medical billing and coding specialist glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Medical Billing and Coding Specialist training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.