Free Medical Billing Specialist Job Description Templates
Free medical billing specialist job description templates: standard, coding, coordinator, small practice, remote, and billing company. With FLSA and HIPAA.
Medical Billing Specialist Job Description Templates
6 free templates: standard, billing and coding, coordinator, small practice, remote, and billing company, with the FLSA, HIPAA, and exclusion-check guidance generic templates skip. Download as DOCX.
Hiring a medical billing specialist comes with a compliance layer the generic templates ignore. The role is non-exempt and overtime-eligible, it handles protected health information so HIPAA training is mandatory, and if your practice bills Medicare or Medicaid you should screen the hire against the federal exclusion list. Get those right alongside the duties, and the posting both attracts the right candidates and protects the practice.
At FirstHR, we build templates for the practices that make this hire, the independent physician, dental, chiropractic, physical therapy, and behavioral health offices, and the billing companies that serve them, almost all without a dedicated HR person. The six templates below cover the role by scope and setting: standard, billing and coding, coordinator, small-practice first hire, remote, and third-party billing company, each with the FLSA and HIPAA reality built in. For the fundamentals behind any posting, the guide to writing a job description is a useful companion.
TL;DR
Six free medical billing specialist job description templates: Standard, Billing and Coding, Coordinator, First Hire / Small Practice, Remote, and Third-Party Billing Company. The role runs the claims cycle, is non-exempt and hourly, and handles PHI under HIPAA. The federal median sits around $47,000 to $50,000 a year. The compliance scaffolding, FLSA, HIPAA, and exclusion checks, is what competitors skip. Download all six as a DOCX.
What Does a Medical Billing Specialist Do?
A medical billing specialist manages the billing cycle that turns care delivered into revenue collected: preparing and submitting insurance claims, applying billing codes, posting payments, working denials, and following up on outstanding accounts, all while protecting patient information under HIPAA. The federal occupation closest to the biller role is billing and posting clerks (SOC 43-3021), which lists medical biller and billing coordinator among its sample job titles; when coding is part of the job, the work overlaps with medical records specialists (SOC 29-2072).
For the practice writing the posting, two things matter up front. First, the scope varies: some specialists only run the claims cycle, while others also code from clinical documentation, and a coordinator leans toward workflow, which is why the templates below are split that way. Second, and unlike most office roles, the biller comes with genuine compliance weight, non-exempt status, HIPAA, and federal-program exclusion screening, that the posting and the hire need to handle.
Biller vs Coder vs Coordinator vs Manager
These titles describe different scopes and levels, and picking the right one shapes who applies. Here is how they differ.
Biller / Billing Specialist
Billing & Coding Specialist
Billing Coordinator
Billing Manager
Core job
Runs the claims cycle
Claims plus coding
Workflow and follow-up
Leads the billing function
Codes from notes?
No
Yes
Limited
Oversees
Level
Specialist
Specialist, broader skill
Specialist, process
Supervisory
FLSA
Non-exempt
Non-exempt
Non-exempt
May be exempt
The biller runs claims, the billing and coding specialist adds coding, the coordinator handles workflow, and the manager supervises the function and may be classified differently for overtime. Decide which scope your practice needs, then use the matching title, since this page covers the specialist-level roles, not the manager.
Medical Billing Specialist Duties and Responsibilities
Medical billing duties cluster into four areas: claims and coding, payments and accounts receivable, denials and payers, and compliance and records. The O*NET profile for billing and posting clerks catalogs the underlying work activities, and lists medical biller among the occupation's job titles. A strong posting picks the responsibilities from each area that match your practice and scope rather than listing every possible task.
Claims and coding
Prepare and submit CMS-1500 and UB-04 claims
Apply CPT, ICD-10, and HCPCS codes accurately
Verify charge capture against documentation
Payments and AR
Post insurance and patient payments
Reconcile accounts and flag variances
Follow up on aging accounts receivable
Denials and payers
Work denials, rejections, and appeals
Verify eligibility and prior authorizations
Communicate with payers and patients
Compliance and records
Protect patient information under HIPAA
Follow payer and CMS billing rules
Maintain accurate, organized billing records
The scope shifts the weight: a coding-inclusive role leans on documentation review and code assignment, a coordinator on tracking and follow-up, a billing-company role on multi-client throughput. For a structured way to scope the role to your practice, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by scope and setting. The core structure is the same across all six, but the duties, the experience bar, and the compliance emphasis differ enough that the matched version reads more credibly to the billers who have done the job. Use this guide to choose, then adjust.
Standard Specialist
Most practices
The universal baseline: submit claims, post payments, work denials, and follow up on AR under HIPAA. Start here for most physician, dental, or therapy practices.
Billing and Coding Specialist
Coding included
The coding-inclusive version: assign CPT, ICD-10, and HCPCS codes from clinical documentation in addition to running the billing cycle.
Billing Coordinator
Workflow and follow-up
The process-focused version: coordinate the daily billing workflow, track claim status, and keep follow-up organized across the office.
First Hire / Small Practice
First dedicated biller
For a practice bringing billing in-house: a solo role owning the cycle end to end and building the process. The hero version for a small practice.
Remote Specialist
Work-from-home billing
The remote version: the full billing cycle from a home office on a cloud system, with HIPAA-secure workspace language built in.
Third-Party Billing Company
Multi-client billing
For a billing service: managing claims across multiple client practices to turnaround and accuracy standards under business associate agreements.
Match the Template to the Scope
Running claims only? Standard Specialist. Need coding from documentation too? Billing and Coding Specialist. Focused on workflow and follow-up? Coordinator. Bringing billing in-house for the first time? First Hire / Small Practice. Hiring a work-from-home biller? Remote. Staffing a billing service across client practices? Third-Party Billing Company. In every version, the role is non-exempt and handles PHI under HIPAA.
6 Free Medical Billing Specialist Job Description Templates
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: practice and job summary, key responsibilities, qualifications, the non-exempt classification with the overtime note, pay, and how to apply, with an EEO statement. Fill in the brackets and post.
Download All 6 Job Description Templates
Standard, billing and coding, coordinator, small-practice first hire, remote, and third-party billing company. All in one DOCX.
Template 1: Medical Billing Specialist (Standard)
The universal baseline: submit claims, post payments, work denials, and follow up on accounts receivable under HIPAA. Start here for most physician, dental, or therapy practices.
Medical Billing Specialist Job Description (Standard)
MEDICAL BILLING SPECIALIST JOB DESCRIPTION
Practice: __
Location: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Practice Manager / Office Manager / Owner]
[Company Name] is a medical billing company hiring a Medical Billing
Specialist to manage billing for multiple client practices. You will handle
claims, payments, and denials across several specialties and payers, meet
client turnaround and accuracy standards, and protect each client's
protected health information under HIPAA and our business associate
agreements.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Manage the billing cycle for assigned client practices
•Submit claims and apply CPT, ICD-10, and HCPCS codes
•Post payments and reconcile across multiple clients
•Work denials and appeals to meet client recovery targets
•Meet turnaround, accuracy, and productivity standards
•Report on client billing performance and AR
•Follow HIPAA and business associate agreement obligations
•Protect each client's patient information at all times
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[2+] years of medical billing experience, multi-specialty a plus
•Strong knowledge of CPT, ICD-10, payer rules, and claim forms
•Ability to manage multiple client accounts accurately
•Familiarity with multiple practice-management systems
•Understanding of HIPAA and business associate obligations
•[Certification (CPB, CPC, CCS, or CBCS) preferred, not required]
COMPENSATION AND CLASSIFICATION
Pay: $_____ per hour [+ productivity incentive, if offered]
Non-exempt, hourly: overtime is owed at one and a half times the regular
rate over 40 hours a week. The regular rate includes nondiscretionary
incentives. [Confirm against actual duties. See the compliance section. This
is general information, not legal advice.]
Benefits: __
To apply, send your resume to __ by _.
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer.
FLSA, HIPAA, and Hiring Compliance
This is the part generic templates skip, and for a medical practice it is the part that carries the most risk: the role is non-exempt, it handles PHI under HIPAA, and federal-program billing adds an exclusion-screening step. Here is what to get right before you post and hire.
FLSA: the medical billing specialist is non-exempt and owed overtime
The role is non-exempt and overtime-eligible, and the reasoning matters because practices sometimes assume an office salary makes it exempt. A medical billing specialist fails the administrative exemption because the work is applying well-established rules, CPT and ICD-10 code sets, payer policies, and CMS claim protocols, rather than exercising discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance like setting policy. It also fails the learned-professional exemption, which requires advanced knowledge from a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, because the role is entered with a high school diploma plus a certificate or associate's degree, not a four-year degree as a standard prerequisite. So the specialist is owed overtime at one and a half times the regular rate over 40 hours a week, and a salary above the floor does not change the duties analysis. A billing manager with genuine supervisory authority is assessed separately. This is general information, not legal advice.
HIPAA: billers handle PHI, so training is mandatory
A medical billing specialist works with protected health information every day, which makes HIPAA training and safeguards mandatory, not optional. Reference HIPAA in both the job posting and the onboarding, require completion of HIPAA privacy and security training before the biller touches patient data, and document that training. For a remote biller, add workspace and device security expectations. For a third-party billing company, the relationship is governed by a business associate agreement with each client practice. Building the HIPAA acknowledgment into a structured onboarding, with the signed training record stored, is both a compliance step and a simple operational habit that protects the practice. This is general information, not legal advice.
OIG exclusion check: screen against the LEIE before hiring
Any practice that bills Medicare or Medicaid should check the federal List of Excluded Individuals and Entities before hiring or contracting with a biller, and periodically afterward, because employing an excluded person and billing federal programs for their work carries civil monetary penalties. The federal guidance is to screen prior to employment and then periodically, and because the list updates monthly, a monthly recheck of current staff is the common best practice. Small practices frequently skip this step and are the most exposed. Add a pre-hire exclusion check and a recurring recheck to your hiring and onboarding process so it is never missed. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm current requirements with official OIG resources.
Certifications are preferred, not legally required
No state requires a medical biller to hold a certification to do the work, so treat credentials as preferred rather than mandatory unless your practice genuinely needs them. The recognized billing and coding certifications come from professional bodies and signal competence: a billing-focused credential and several coding credentials are common, and listing one or two as preferred helps screen without shrinking the applicant pool unnecessarily. Requiring a specific certification when the role does not truly need it narrows your candidates and can push up pay for no operational gain. State the certifications you value as a plus, weigh demonstrated experience alongside them, and keep the requirement honest to the role. This is general information, not legal advice.
Non-Exempt: Overtime Over 40 Hours a Week
A medical billing specialist is non-exempt and owed overtime at one and a half times the regular rate over 40 hours a week. The role fails the administrative exemption (DOL Fact Sheet #17C) because applying CPT and ICD-10 codes and payer rules is skill in established procedures, not discretion on matters of significance, and it fails the learned-professional exemption because no four-year degree is a standard prerequisite. A salary above the federal floor does not change the duties analysis.
Requirements, Skills, and Certifications to Include
Medical billing requirements center on knowledge of the claims cycle and your software, with certifications as a preferred plus rather than a legal must. The SHRM job description tools describe a good job description as a plain-language summary of a position's tasks, duties, and responsibilities, and for this role plain language means stating the real claims-cycle knowledge you need and treating credentials honestly. The difference shows in how the bullets are written.
Weak requirement
Strong requirement
Billing experience required
2+ years of medical billing experience (scale to the level)
Knows coding
Working knowledge of CPT, ICD-10, HCPCS, and claim forms
Software skills
Familiarity with practice-management or EHR billing software
Certification required
CPB, CPC, CCS, or CBCS certification preferred, not required
Discreet
Understanding of HIPAA and protecting patient information
Keep certifications preferred rather than required unless the role truly needs one, and keep every line job-related and neutral: the EEOC rules on job advertisements prohibit postings that express preferences based on protected characteristics. Weigh demonstrated experience alongside credentials, since strong billers often build their skills on the job.
Medical Billing Specialist Pay
Medical billing pay is hourly for most roles, and the federal data places it in a clear band; your practice type, the scope, and your local market decide where in it your rate lands, and a growing number of states require a range in the posting.
Median Around $47,000 to $50,000 a Year (BLS, May 2024)
The closest biller occupation, billing and posting clerks, had a median annual wage of about $47,170 as of BLS May 2024 data, with employment near 429,800; the coding-inclusive occupation, medical records specialists, had a median around $50,250, with the lowest 10 percent under about $35,780 and the highest 10 percent over roughly $80,950 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Most postings run about $17 to $26 an hour.
Translating the band into an offer: small physician, dental, and therapy practices sit toward the lower end, while large hospital billing departments, complex specialties, and combined billing-and-coding or certified roles pay more. Benchmark to your setting and local market, state an hourly range, and include it in the posting where your state's pay-transparency law requires it, since some states apply to employers with as few as four or five employees.
Hiring a Biller for a Small Practice
A hospital hires billers through a revenue-cycle department and an HR team. An independent physician, dental, chiropractic, physical therapy, or behavioral health practice has the owner or office manager doing it personally, with no HR support and a compliance stack that does not scale down with the practice. Here is how to approach the posting and the hire for that reality.
Biller, billing and coding specialist, coordinator, and manager are not the same hire
These titles get used loosely, and the wrong one draws the wrong applicants. A medical biller or billing specialist runs the claims cycle: submitting claims, posting payments, and working denials. A billing and coding specialist adds the coding side, assigning CPT and ICD-10 codes from clinical documentation, which is a distinct skill some practices need and others assign to a separate coder. A billing coordinator leans toward workflow and follow-up. A billing manager is a more senior, supervisory role that may even be classified differently for overtime. Decide whether you need someone to work claims, to also code, to coordinate the workflow, or to manage a team, then use the matching title. Naming a clerk-level claims role a manager, or asking a coordinator to do full coding without saying so, leads to mismatched applicants and early turnover.
The compliance stack is real, and small practices carry it without HR
A small physician, dental, chiropractic, physical therapy, or behavioral health practice hiring a biller carries the same compliance obligations as a hospital billing department, just without an HR or compliance team to manage them. The biller is non-exempt and owed overtime over 40 hours a week, regardless of an office salary. HIPAA training is mandatory before the biller touches patient data. If the practice bills Medicare or Medicaid, it should screen the new hire against the federal exclusion list before hiring and recheck periodically. And in a growing number of states, a pay-transparency law may require a salary range in the job posting, with some states applying to employers as small as four or five employees. None of this scales down with the practice; it just lands on the owner or office manager. The fix is to build the steps into a repeatable hiring and onboarding process so none of them gets missed. This is general information, not legal advice.
An independent practice or billing company is making this hire without an HR department
Medical billers are hired by exactly the businesses FirstHR is built for: independent physician, dental, chiropractic, physical therapy, and behavioral health practices, plus the third-party billing companies that serve them, almost all small businesses in the 5-to-50-employee band where the owner or office manager does the hiring. The role handles PHI and federal-program compliance, so the onboarding has more steps than a typical hire, and getting them consistent matters. That is what FirstHR streamlines. Send the offer letter and collect a signature with e-signature, run a repeatable onboarding workflow that captures the I-9, W-4, HIPAA training acknowledgment, and exclusion-check confirmation, assign HIPAA and billing-software training through training modules, and store the signed forms and training records in document management. To be clear on scope, FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform; it does not run payroll, time tracking, or medical billing, so pair it with those systems. Applicant tracking is coming soon.
From Hiring to Onboarding
The job description is step one. Once a candidate accepts, the same details become the offer and a healthcare-specific onboarding with two steps most roles do not have: the exclusion check and HIPAA training before the biller touches patient data.
Send the offer
Confirm the role, hourly rate, schedule, and start date in writing. An offer letter template makes this fast for a non-exempt billing role.
Run the exclusion check
Screen the new hire against the federal exclusion list before the start date if the practice bills Medicare or Medicaid, and schedule rechecks.
Complete HIPAA training
Require HIPAA privacy and security training before the biller touches PHI, with the signed acknowledgment stored on file.
Finish the paperwork and train
Form I-9, the W-4 and state tax forms, state new hire reporting, then training on your practice-management or EHR billing system.
Once your offer is ready, the offer letter template handles the core terms, an onboarding template gives the new biller a structured start, and the new hire paperwork guide covers the I-9, tax forms, and state reporting. FirstHR connects the offer, signatures, HIPAA training assignment, exclusion-check confirmation, onboarding workflow, and document storage in one place so a small practice or billing company can run the full hire-and-onboard cycle without an HR department. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll, time-tracking, or medical-billing system, so connect those separately. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
Biller, billing and coding specialist, coordinator, and manager are different roles; this page covers the specialist level, and the manager may be classified differently for overtime.
Use the template that matches the scope and setting: standard, billing and coding, coordinator, small-practice first hire, remote, or third-party billing company.
The medical billing specialist is non-exempt and owed overtime; it fails both the administrative-discretion and learned-professional-degree exemption prongs, and a salary does not make it exempt.
HIPAA training is mandatory before the biller touches PHI; build the signed acknowledgment into onboarding.
If the practice bills Medicare or Medicaid, screen new hires against the federal exclusion list before the start date and recheck periodically.
The federal median sits around $47,000 to $50,000 a year; treat certifications (CPB, CPC, CCS, CBCS) as preferred, not required, and post a pay range where your state requires it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a medical billing specialist do?
A medical billing specialist manages the billing cycle that turns care delivered into revenue collected: preparing and submitting insurance claims, applying the correct billing codes, posting payments, working denials, and following up on outstanding accounts. Day to day that means submitting clean claims on CMS-1500 or UB-04 forms, applying CPT, ICD-10, and HCPCS codes, verifying insurance eligibility and prior authorizations, posting insurance and patient payments, reconciling accounts, working denials and filing appeals, following up on aging accounts receivable, and communicating with payers, patients, and providers, all while protecting patient information under HIPAA. The federal occupation closest to the biller role is billing and posting clerks (SOC 43-3021), which lists medical biller and billing coordinator among its job titles; when coding is included, the work overlaps with medical records specialists (SOC 29-2072). The exact scope varies: some specialists also code from clinical documentation, while others focus purely on the claims cycle.
What is the difference between a medical biller and a medical coder?
A medical biller manages the claims and payment cycle, while a medical coder translates clinical documentation into standardized codes, and many small practices combine both into one role. The biller prepares and submits claims, posts payments, works denials, and follows up on accounts receivable, focusing on getting claims paid. The coder reads provider notes and assigns the correct CPT, ICD-10, and HCPCS codes that describe the diagnoses and procedures, focusing on coding accuracy and compliance. In a large organization these are separate jobs; in a small physician, dental, or therapy practice, one medical billing and coding specialist often does both. For hiring, decide whether you need someone to run the claims cycle, to code from documentation, or to do both, and use the matching title. The combined billing and coding specialist commands a broader skill set, while a pure biller role is easier to fill and often sits at a slightly lower pay band. Name the role for the actual work.
Is a medical billing specialist exempt or non-exempt from overtime?
A medical billing specialist is non-exempt and entitled to overtime. The role fails the FLSA administrative exemption because the work is applying well-established rules, CPT and ICD-10 code sets, payer policies, and CMS claim protocols, rather than exercising discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance such as setting policy; federal guidance is explicit that discretion must be more than skill in applying established techniques and procedures. The role also fails the learned-professional exemption, which requires advanced knowledge from a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, because billers typically enter with a high school diploma plus a certificate or associate's degree, not a four-year degree as a standard prerequisite. So the specialist is owed overtime at one and a half times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, and paying a salary above the federal floor does not change the duties analysis. A billing manager with genuine supervisory authority and policy discretion may be assessed differently. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a medical billing specialist make?
Medical billing specialists are typically paid hourly, and the federal data places the role in the mid-$40,000s to around $50,000 a year depending on which occupation best fits. The closest biller match, billing and posting clerks (SOC 43-3021), had a median annual wage of about $47,170 as of BLS May 2024 data, with national employment around 429,800. The coding-inclusive match, medical records specialists (SOC 29-2072), had a median near $50,250, with the lowest 10 percent under about $35,780 and the highest 10 percent over roughly $80,950. Most postings fall in the range of about $17 to $26 an hour. Pay runs lower at small physician, dental, and therapy practices and higher in large hospital billing departments and complex specialties. Combined billing and coding roles and certified specialists tend toward the upper end. For a posting, benchmark to your setting and local market, state an hourly range, and remember that in a growing number of states a pay-transparency law may require the range in the listing. This is general information, not legal advice.
Does a medical biller need a certification?
No state legally requires a medical biller to hold a certification to do the work, so certifications are preferred rather than mandatory, though they signal competence and can help a candidate stand out. The recognized credentials come from professional organizations: a billing-focused certification and several coding-focused certifications are common in the field, and employers frequently list one or two as preferred. For an entry-level or small-practice role, demonstrated experience with the claims cycle and your software often matters as much as a credential. For a coding-heavy or multi-specialty role, a coding certification carries more weight. The practical approach for a small practice is to list the certifications you value as a plus, weigh them alongside hands-on experience, and avoid requiring a specific credential the role does not truly need, since an unnecessary requirement narrows your applicant pool and can raise pay expectations without a real operational gain. This is general information, not legal advice.
What should a medical billing specialist job description include?
A strong medical billing specialist posting names the practice type and the scope up front, whether the role is pure billing, billing and coding, coordination, or a first in-house hire, and includes a short practice summary, a job summary that makes the claims-cycle focus clear, and responsibilities grouped into claims and coding, payments and accounts receivable, denials and payers, and compliance and records. State the required knowledge of CPT, ICD-10, and the claims cycle, familiarity with your practice-management or EHR software, and any certification as preferred rather than required. Address the FLSA status, noting the role is non-exempt and overtime-eligible, and reference HIPAA, since the biller handles protected health information. Include a pay range where your state requires it, benchmarked to your setting. The compliance specifics, the non-exempt classification, HIPAA training, and an exclusion check for practices billing federal programs, are the parts generic templates skip. Close with an equal opportunity statement and clear apply instructions. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is an OIG exclusion check and does my practice need one?
An exclusion check verifies that a prospective or current employee is not on the federal List of Excluded Individuals and Entities, and any practice that bills Medicare or Medicaid should perform one. Federal guidance directs practices to check the list before employing or contracting with a person and to recheck periodically, because billing federal health programs for items or services furnished by an excluded individual can trigger civil monetary penalties. Since the list is updated monthly, a common best practice is to screen every new hire before the start date and recheck current staff monthly. Small practices frequently skip this step and are among the most exposed when it is missed. The practical fix is to add a pre-hire exclusion check and a recurring recheck to your standard hiring and onboarding process so it happens automatically rather than being remembered case by case. Confirm current requirements with official OIG resources. This is general information, not legal advice.
How do I hire and onboard a medical biller for my practice?
Write the posting for the right scope and title, then run a repeatable hiring and onboarding process that handles the healthcare-specific steps. Use the template that matches your need, standard biller, billing and coding, coordinator, first hire, remote, or billing company, and state the non-exempt status and a pay range where required. Once a candidate accepts, send a written offer and get it signed, run an exclusion check against the federal list before the start date if you bill Medicare or Medicaid, and complete Form I-9, the W-4 and state tax forms, and state new hire reporting. Require HIPAA privacy and security training before the biller touches patient data, and store the signed acknowledgment. Then train on your practice-management or EHR billing system, your payers, and your workflows. For a small practice without an HR department, a repeatable checklist keeps the exclusion check, HIPAA training, and paperwork from slipping. FirstHR handles the offer and signatures with e-signature, runs the onboarding workflow, assigns HIPAA and software training, and stores the records in document management. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
