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AAPC (www.aapc.com) announced the 2011 results for its annual salary survey of health care professionals on the business side of medicine. Participants included medical coders, billers, auditors, and physician practice managers. The average salary for a Certified Professional Coder (CPC®) was approximately $46,800 (up $1,400 from 2010) and more than half of the 12,000 respondents reported earnings of greater than $40,000, which is a first for the annual survey.

Some of the additional survey highlights include:

• The top respondents were coders (38 percent) and management (20 percent).
• Survey respondents are better educated than the general U.S. population, with more than 88 percent having attended some college and more than half having earned a college degree.
• Auditing is a growing profession among respondents with more than 20 percent focusing on auditing long-term; Coding still remains the long-term career goals amongst respondents at 42 percent.
• Individuals with advanced certifications earned more in 2011 on average, including those with CPC-H ($54,700) and CPC-I ($76,000) certifications.
• More than half of the respondents have 10 or more years in their specific specialty and about a third are fairly new with five or less years in the field.
• With health care consolidation seemingly on the rise the percentages of the self-employed, as well as those in small, medium, and large group practices remained consistent.