What medical coders and billers do, how the U.S. healthcare system pays for care, where coders work, and the path to certification.
What is medical coding?
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Every time a patient sees a doctor, has a test or stays in hospital, someone writes it down in the medical record: the reason for the visit, what was found, what was done.
Medical coding translates that written story into standardized codes:
• Diagnosis codes say WHY the patient was seen (e.g. type 2 diabetes, a broken wrist).
• Procedure/service codes say WHAT was done (e.g. an office visit, an X-ray, a blood test).
Those codes go on a claim (a bill) sent to an insurer, and are also used for statistics, research, public health and quality reporting.