Last updated: 2026-08-21
Honest Taskers, The Coding Network, and Access Healthcare lead this year's shortlist of outsourcing partners for medical coding companies, nine firms ranked on how they clear a coding company's overflow, from ICD-10-CM, CPT, and HCPCS assignment off client documentation through coding audits, risk adjustment review, and the query work that keeps charts moving. The buyer here is a coding or auditing firm adding capacity, not a practice choosing a coder, so credentials, chart location, and how the work is priced carry more weight than anything else.
Disclosure: Honest Taskers publishes this list and appears at position 1. We're judged on the same five published criteria as every other company here.
At a glance
- 1Honest Taskers
- 2The Coding Network
- 3Access Healthcare
- 4Outsource Strategies International
- 5Plutus Health
- 6Helpware CX
- 7Practolytics
- 8Sunknowledge Services
- 9Omega Healthcare
How we chose the best outsourcing partners for medical coding companies
We ranked these firms on five facts, each read at the provider's own website on August 21, 2026. Those facts are named coder credentials, where the coders physically sit, published pricing, the engagement model, and the audit and quality controls the firm describes. Coder credentials come first here for a reason. When your own clients are hospitals and physician groups, the question you get asked is who touched the chart and what certification they hold, and a partner that names AAPC or AHIMA gives you an answer you can pass along. Chart location matters second, because some client contracts prohibit offshore access outright. Blank facts read "not publicly listed" rather than a guess.
Best outsourcing partners for medical coding companies compared
The table ranks all 9 on the same columns, Honest Taskers first because we publish the list. Facts were read August 21, 2026 and change often, so treat them as a starting point, not a quote.
| Company | Coding work it takes on | Where the coders sit | Published pricing | Engagement model | Coder credentials and compliance named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honest Taskers | Placed coders working your queues in your system, plus charge entry and documentation support | US clients; recruiting in the Philippines, Latin America, India and Pakistan | $10.00–$12.65/hr | Staffing by the hour | Compliance officer; HIPAA compliance verified by Accountable; BAA when PHI is accessed |
| The Coding Network | Specialty physician coding, E&M, HCC and risk adjustment, facility and ASC coding, audits, RAC defense, training | States all coders and auditors live and work in the United States | Not publicly listed; states per case or per hour | Per case or per hour, coding and auditing only | AAPC member; HIPAA attestation; 800+ coders and auditors |
| Access Healthcare | Medical coding, clinical documentation improvement, revenue integrity, charge audit, autonomous coding | Dallas, Texas; Chennai, India; Manila, Philippines | Not publicly listed | Outsourced service plus its Echo platform | Not publicly listed |
| Outsource Strategies International | Medical and dental coding, coding audits, eligibility, prior authorization | Tulsa, Oklahoma; states service in all 50 states | Not publicly listed | Outsourced service, custom packages | AHIMA and AAPC certified coders; says it works to HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II standards |
| Plutus Health | Inpatient coding, HCC coding, risk adjustment validation, coding audits, complex claims | Dallas, Texas; states coverage in 40+ US states | Not publicly listed | Outsourced service with automation | AAPC-certified coding audits; HIPAA; SOC 2 Type II |
| Helpware CX | Medical coding outsourcing, medical data entry, claims and billing support, back office | 19 locations including the USA, Mexico, the Philippines, Ukraine, Georgia and Uganda | $8–$15/hr (stated range) | Managed team, hourly | SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001; HIPAA; GDPR; PCI DSS |
| Practolytics | Medical coding, compliance audits, transcription, plus coding staff placement | Columbia, South Carolina and Duluth, Georgia | Not publicly listed | Outsourced service plus staffing | AAPC and AHIMA certified coders; HIPAA |
| Sunknowledge Services | Coding across 38+ specialties, charge entry, clinical documentation, audits | New York headquarters; states US delivery in all US time zones | Not publicly listed | Outsourced service, per-process | HIPAA; ISO 27001:2022 |
| Omega Healthcare | Mid-revenue-cycle coding, health data curation, registry and clinical trial data work | Boca Raton, Florida; the Philippines; India; Colombia | Not publicly listed | Outsourced service at enterprise scale | Not publicly listed |
The split that matters is onshore against offshore. The Coding Network states that every coder lives and works in the United States with no offshore affiliation, which is the answer you need for a contract that forbids overseas access. Most of the rest deliver at least partly from India or the Philippines at lower cost. Two firms publish coder certifications and a security report together, and two publish neither.
1. Honest Taskers
Best for: coding companies that want extra coders and coding support staff working their own queues by the hour, without routing charts to a rival coding firm.
Pricing: $10.00–$12.65/hrLocation: US clients; PH, LatAm, India and Pakistan recruitingModel: Staffing by the hourFirst hire: Two-week working trial
Honest Taskers places people rather than selling coded charts, which is why it leads for this buyer. Your quality program, your client-specific coding guidelines, and your audit trail stay yours, and you scale the bench instead of handing charts to a firm that also sells coding to hospitals directly. Placed staff work inside your systems on chart preparation, code assignment support, charge entry, documentation queries, and the backlog follow-up. Candidates are trained on HIPAA and data privacy under a dedicated compliance officer, work in your time zone, and a Business Associate Agreement is signed before anyone touches protected health information, with HIPAA compliance verified by Accountable. Rates begin around $10 an hour and reach about $12.65 depending on role, background, schedule, and location, the first hire comes with a two-week working trial, and the company reports 99.6% average monthly retention. See the virtual medical coder service for role detail.
Limitation: it does not publish AAPC or AHIMA certification for its coding staff, so ask about credentials candidate by candidate, and your team still owns final code assignment and audit sign-off.
2. The Coding Network
Best for: coding companies with client contracts that prohibit offshore chart access, or that need a specialty they have no coder for.
Pricing: Per case or per hourLocation: United States onlyModel: Coding and auditing onlyTrial: Not publicly listed
The Coding Network is the clearest fit on this list for a coding company, because coding is the whole business rather than a line inside a revenue cycle catalogue. It states that all coders and auditors live and work in the United States and that it has no affiliation with any offshore companies or contractors, which is a sentence you can put in front of a hospital client. Company-reported scale includes more than 800 coders and auditors, 55 or more specialties, and over 25 years of operation, with coders required to hold three or more years of specialty-specific experience and auditors five. Services cover specialty physician coding, evaluation and management coding, risk adjustment and HCC coding, MIPS, facility and ambulatory surgery center coding, coding audits, RAC audit defense, and provider documentation training. Its site names billing companies among the organizations it partners with.
Limitation: it codes and audits and nothing else, so it will not work claims, accounts receivable, or denials, and US-only staffing costs more than offshore delivery.
3. Access Healthcare
Best for: coding companies with large hospital volumes that want automation applied to the repetitive tail of the chart mix.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: Dallas, Chennai, ManilaModel: Outsourced service plus automationTrial: Not publicly listed
Access Healthcare treats coding as one block of a mid-cycle service that also includes charge entry and audit, clinical documentation improvement, and revenue integrity, so a coding company can buy the neighbouring work rather than only the coding. Its automation layer, which it calls Echo, includes an autonomous coding component, and the firm reports a 60% reduction in cost to collect from day one as a company-reported figure. What makes it relevant here is that its stated client types include medical billing companies and revenue cycle partners rather than only providers and payers, so subcontracted work is a normal arrangement for it. Delivery runs from Dallas, Chennai, and Manila, and it also runs payer-side operations including claims, appeals, and utilization management.
Limitation: its site names no coder certification and no security certification, which is a gap when your client asks who coded the chart and under what standard.
4. Outsource Strategies International
Best for: coding companies that need dental coding and insurance verification alongside medical, from certified coders.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: Tulsa, OklahomaModel: Outsourced service, custom packagesTrial: Not publicly listed
Outsource Strategies International names AHIMA and AAPC certification for its coders and runs medical and dental work side by side, which is unusual and useful if your client book has grown into dental practices. Alongside coding it covers coding audits, eligibility verification, prior authorization, denial management, and accounts receivable, and it sells an artificial-intelligence coding platform it calls MedGenX for the higher-volume end of a chart mix. The firm reports more than 21 years of operation from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and savings of up to 40%, a company-reported figure with no rate behind it. It says it works to HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II standards.
Limitation: "works to SOC 2 Type II standards" is not the same claim as holding the report, so ask which applies before you cite it to a client.
5. Plutus Health
Best for: coding companies taking on risk adjustment or inpatient work, where an audited security report is part of the deal.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: Dallas, TexasModel: Outsourced service with automationTrial: Not publicly listed
Plutus Health publishes the specific coding lines a coding company is most likely to be short on: inpatient coding, HCC coding, risk adjustment validation, coding audits, and complex claims. It names SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA together with AAPC-certified coding accuracy audits, which covers both questions a client asks, who coded it and how the vendor is secured. Company-reported figures include 1,600 agents, $1.7 billion in annual claims, more than 9,000 providers, and 15 or more years of operation. Its named client types skew to behavioral health, ambulatory surgery centers, free-standing emergency rooms, and private-equity-backed platforms, so the chart mix it sees most often is specialty rather than primary care.
Limitation: no pricing is published, and coding sits inside a full revenue cycle offering rather than being the firm's whole focus.
6. Helpware CX
Best for: coding companies that want a published hourly range and a full certification stack in the same sentence.
Pricing: $8–$15/hrLocation: 19 locations across four continentsModel: Managed team, hourlyTrial: Not publicly listed
Helpware CX is the transparency outlier here. It publishes an hourly range of $8 to $15 for healthcare work and names SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS together, which is the strongest documented security position on this list. It sells a medical coding outsourcing line alongside medical data entry, claims and billing support, and insurance verification, staffed from 19 locations that include the United States, Mexico, the Philippines, Ukraine, Georgia, and Uganda. Company-reported quality figures include a 98% quality assurance score, an error rate under 2% on patient records, and an average client partnership of five or more years.
Limitation: it names no AAPC or AHIMA coder certification, and healthcare is one industry inside a general customer experience business rather than the whole of it.
7. Practolytics
Best for: coding companies that want certified coders on US soil and the option to place staff instead of outsourcing charts.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: Columbia, SC and Duluth, GAModel: Outsourced service plus staffingTrial: Not publicly listed
Practolytics names AAPC and AHIMA certification for its coders and, unusually, sells both models: outsourced coding and compliance audits on one hand, healthcare staffing and virtual medical assistant placement on the other. For a coding company that means you can subcontract a specialty you don't cover while adding hourly people to your own audit bench under the same relationship. The wider list includes eligibility verification, pre-authorizations, credentialing, insurance contract negotiation, and medical transcription. Company-reported figures include 28 or more specialties and a 48-hour claim turnaround, delivered from Columbia, South Carolina and Duluth, Georgia.
Limitation: HIPAA is the only security posture it names, and the site pairs "trusted since 2014" with "20+ years experience", so ask which describes the company.
8. Sunknowledge Services
Best for: coding companies that want an information security certification named and a wide specialty range behind it.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: New York; states US-wide deliveryModel: Outsourced service, per-processTrial: Not publicly listed
Sunknowledge Services holds ISO 27001:2022 and names HIPAA, and sells coding as part of a mid-billing block that also covers charge entry, clinical documentation, and audits, with prior authorization as its most prominent standalone service. For a coding company the appeal is range: the firm reports coverage of 38 or more specialties, 19 or more years in business, and a 99.9% coding accuracy figure, all company-reported, delivered from a New York headquarters across all US time zones. It also runs a virtual assistant line, including medical scribes, if the work you need is documentation support rather than code assignment.
Limitation: it names no AAPC or AHIMA coder certification, publishes no rates, and does not say where its production teams physically sit.
9. Omega Healthcare
Best for: coding companies with enterprise volume that also need clinical data work, such as registry or trial data curation.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: Boca Raton, PH, India, ColombiaModel: Outsourced service, enterprise scaleTrial: Not publicly listed
Omega Healthcare is the enterprise option, and it is the only firm here that pairs mid-revenue-cycle coding with a health data curation practice covering clinical trial data, real-world data, registry data management, and validation of machine learning models. Its stated client types include providers, payers, life sciences and health technology firms, and what it calls industry partners, which is where a coding company subcontracting work would sit. Alongside coding it runs patient access, business office, care coordination, payer operations, and drug access services, delivered from Boca Raton, Florida plus the Philippines, India, and Colombia.
Limitation: it names no certification and no coder credential publicly, and its site's own statistics render as placeholders, so every number has to come from a sales conversation.
Should a medical coding company hire coders, outsource charts, or buy autonomous coding?
Hire when the specialty is core to your book, because a coder you employ builds client-specific knowledge a subcontractor cannot. An in-house medical records specialist earned about $51,140 a year, roughly $24.59 an hour before benefits, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 wage data for medical records specialists, against roughly $8 to $15 an hour for offshore or placed remote staff. Subcontract charts when the volume is temporary or the specialty is one you don't want to build, which is what a per-case arrangement like The Coding Network's is designed for. Buy autonomous coding for the repetitive tail, since evaluation and management levels on high-volume encounters are pattern work, and both Access Healthcare and Outsource Strategies International sell a platform for it. Automation will not defend a code in an audit or resolve a documentation ambiguity with a physician, so it changes your cost per chart rather than replacing your coders. For the credentials your own hiring competes against, see medical coder training and certification.
What are the risks when a medical coding company subcontracts charts?
The risks concentrate around credentials, chart location, and audit exposure, because your client is buying your name on the coded chart, not your vendor's.
- Credential proof, not credential language. Ask for the certification of the specific coders assigned, since "certified coders" on a marketing page tells you nothing about who works your queue.
- Offshore restrictions in your client contracts. Check whether your agreements permit overseas chart access at all before you shortlist, because five of the nine firms here deliver at least partly outside the United States.
- Audit and denial exposure. Ask who pays for rework and who represents the code in an audit, since a downcoded or unsupported claim lands on your client and your reputation.
- Quality measurement you can verify. Ask for the audit sample size and the error definition behind any accuracy percentage, since a 99% figure with no methodology is a marketing number.
- Competitive overlap. Most firms here sell coding directly to hospitals, so ask whether they will approach your clients.
How is outsourced medical coding priced when the buyer is a coding company?
Three shapes exist and only two are published. Per-chart or per-case pricing is the traditional coding unit and the one that matches how you bill your own clients, and The Coding Network states it prices per case or per hour without naming the rate. Hourly pricing is the transparent option here: Helpware CX publishes $8 to $15 an hour for healthcare work, and Honest Taskers begins around $10 and reaches about $12.65 by role, background, schedule, and location. Everything else on this list is quote-only. Ask every firm for a cost per chart at your own specialty mix, because an hourly rate and a per-chart rate are not comparable until you know throughput. Rates were checked August 2026. For the systems a coder works in, see the medical coder tools and software guide.
What should a medical coding company look for in a partner?
Credentials, chart location, audit support, and whether the firm competes with you cover most of the decision.
- Named coder certification. AAPC or AHIMA on the record beats a claimed accuracy rate. Four firms here name it and five do not.
- Where the chart goes. Get the delivery country in writing, and prefer a firm that states it plainly.
- Audit and appeal support. Ask whether the partner will support a RAC or payer audit on charts it coded, and at whose cost.
- Specialty depth in your gap. Match the partner to the specialty you lack, whether that's inpatient or risk adjustment.
- Security evidence you can forward. ISO 27001 or a SOC 2 Type II report gives your client something concrete. HIPAA language alone does not.
For scoping the role, the medical coder duties breakdown lists the work chart by chart.
How do you start with a medical coding partner?
Start by naming the gap precisely, because "we need coders" and "we need an inpatient coder for one client" lead to different firms.
- Define the gap by specialty, chart type, and volume, and check whether the client contract allows offshore access.
- Decide whether you are buying charts or hours, since that removes most of this list either way.
- Ask two or three firms to quote cost per chart at your complexity mix and to name the assigned coders' credentials.
- Get the subcontractor Business Associate Agreement and any security report before charts move.
- Blind-audit the partner's first batch against your own coders, then scale only if the error rate holds.
For the broader hiring path on the staffing side, read the medical coder guide.
Methodology and sources
We read each company's own website on August 21, 2026, recording named coder credentials, coder location, published pricing, engagement model, and stated security certifications. Wage context is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for medical records specialists. Where a company didn't publish a fact, we marked it "not publicly listed"; self-stated figures are labeled company-reported and were not independently audited. Rates were captured as dated points, not permanent quotes.
Related medical coding staffing guides
If you're building your own bench instead of subcontracting, start with the role. Our medical coder guide covers what the work involves day to day, which credentials employers ask for, and how remote coding engagements are usually structured. For scoping and the compliance paperwork that has to be in place before anyone opens a chart, the guide to hiring a virtual medical assistant walks through it step by step.
Speak with Honest Taskers about adding coding support to your team.