Travel Jobs: Coding Auditor

Be a coding auditor. What have we here? You’ve got it – another non-sales travel job. Yesterday I caught up with my friend Sarena to find out about her fabulous travel job as a Coding Auditor.

Coding auditors are in the business of auditing physicians to ensure the physician’s documents contain the correct medical information. The auditors work for insurance companies to make sure they don’t overpay.

Assignments are flexible, according to the amount of time you want to spend on the road and the amount of time you can afford to be home. Some coders fly home on Friday and return to location on Sunday. Others may work for 2 weeks on location (whatever geographic area he or she is assigned to at the time) and then go home for a week. You aren’t paid for that week at home, and you don’t have to work if you remain on location over the weekends. Flights, accommodations and per-diem expenses are paid.

So you want to sign up. What do you need? A degree in medical coding, health information or nursing is a great start. The clincher is to get a coding certificate. There are two organizations from whom you can obtain your certificate.

• American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) offers the Certificate of Professional Coding (CPC).
• American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) offers the certificate in Certified Coding Specialist (CCS).

Finally, you need 3 to 5 years of experience.

So you’ve done all of the groundwork, how do you find a job? Job boards are listed on the above organizations websites, along with an endless supply of medical coding recruiters you can find on Google. The AHIMA website has a great Job Bank page.