Health Information Technician: Career Profile, Job Outlook, and Training Requirements

Explore the career requirements for health information technicians. Get the facts about education requirements, certification, job duties and salary to determine if this is the right career for you.

What Is a Health Information Technician?

Health information technicians are responsible for maintaining accurate and well-organized patient data. They will make sure that the data is accurate, accessible and secure using paper and electronic systems. These professionals will also use classification systems to code information for different needs, such as insurance reimbursement or registries. Health information technicians will also track patients' outcomes to test for quality. They must be able to adhere to confidentiality regulations to protect a patient's private information. Some health information technicians may choose to specialize as coding specialists or cancer registrars. To learn what you can expect from a career in this field, check out the table below:

Degree Required	Certificate or associate degree
Education Field of Study	Health information technology
Key Skills	Analytical and interpersonal skills, an attention to detail, familiarity with electronic health records software
Certification	Available to associate degree program graduates; preferred by most employers
Job Growth (2020-2030)	9%*
Median Salary (2020)	$44,090*

Source: *U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

What Are the Duties of a Health Information Technician?

As a health information technician, you gather patient data, evaluate its accuracy and organize the data to make it easily accessible to patients, doctors and insurance companies. Medical history, symptom information, test results, diagnoses and related data make up the vast archive of information in a patient's medical record. You may assess medical records for completeness and correspond with other medical professionals to obtain extra information as needed.

Because most technicians are employed in a hospital setting, you will need to become increasingly familiar with electronic health care records, which are beginning to be used with more and more frequency. Additionally, there are several specialty areas within the health information technician field, such as cancer registry and health information coding.

What Is My Occupational Outlook?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 416,400 health information technicians employed as of 2020; the number of available positions was expected to increase to 453,600, by 2020 (www.bls.gov). This is an estimated job growth of 9%, which is much faster than the national average for all professions. New employment opportunities in this field were expected to result from the increasing number of elderly patients needing medical care.

What Educational Requirements Should I Meet?

A postsecondary certificate in health information technology is the minimum level of education required to work in the field. However, most companies prefer to employ Registered Health Information Technicians. Per the American Health Information Management Association, applicants for registration must pass a written test, which is only available to graduates of associate degree programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management (www.ahima.org).

What Are Some Related Alternative Careers?

The related careers discussed here require at least a high school diploma, followed by a certificate or associate's degree. Information clerks are responsible for numerous clerical duties, such as collecting data and relaying information to customers. Medical transcriptionists work to create written documents from voice recordings of healthcare professionals. They use speech recognition technology to help them edit medical documents, and must be able to interpret medical terminology.