The state of Georgia has a very diverse economy compared to many of its neighbors. The state is home to a number of skilled manufacturing plants producing goods including cars, trucks and even airplanes. Georgia’s natural resources are rich, including a number one ranking in commercial forests by acreage. Additional leading industries included livestock, poultry, textiles, clothing, electronic and transportation equipment. On top of this, Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport happens to be one of the busiest airports in the world. However, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, the 4th largest field in the state of Georgia is the Health Care industry, employing nearly 575,000 people. This number is expected to climb as well over the coming decade.
Sponsored School(s)
A chart listing the top cities and their corresponding salaries in the medical billing and coding field for the state of Georgia is below:
Georgia’s Growing Health Care Field
In a directly related news article in the Augusta Chronicle from July, 2016, Georgia’s state university system schools have injected more than $1.5 billion (yes, Billion) into the Georgia economy, Augusta in particular, during 2016. The bulk of these economic transfers were generated by Georgia Health Sciences University and its hospitals and clinics, responsible for $1.4 billion alone. With this number expected to rise, the health care industry in Georgia looks to be moving ahead full steam for the immediate future if not the next decade. In fact, of the 35 institutions state-wide, over $13 billion of the state’s economy, was directly related to health care and area hospitals and medical centers.
Job Growth in 2019
Roughly 132,000 new jobs were created over the past 5 years from these medical centers, as Georgia’s health care fields continue to grow, led by the state’s education systems and medical schools and research centers. Most importantly, where we find health care, hospitals and medical centers, we find medical billers and coders, the individuals responsible for keeping the financial wheels of patient care moving. During the decade leading to 2017, just two university medical center expansions created over 28,000 health care jobs. Each of these medical centers requires a large number of medical billers and coders. And all this while the state’s economy actually shrunk by over 7 percent during this same period!