--- title: "Clinical Documentation Integrity Specialist" description: "Reviews medical records to make sure physician documentation accurately reflects how sick patients are and the care they received." canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-documentation-integrity-specialist" last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z" --- # Clinical Documentation Integrity Specialist **Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-9021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-9021.00 Reviews medical records to make sure physician documentation accurately reflects how sick patients are and the care they received. Also advertised as: CDI Specialist; Clinical Documentation Specialist; Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist; CDI Nurse; Certified Clinical Documentation Specialist. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $68,020 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $32.70/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,830 to $117,420, with the middle half between $48,940 and $95,630 - **Total US employment:** 38,100 - **Typical entry education:** Associate's - **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** +15.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035) - **Annual job openings:** 3,000 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** not scored for this occupation ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 38,100 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $39,830 | | 25th | $48,940 | | 50th (median) | $68,020 | | 75th | $95,630 | | 90th | $117,420 | | Mean (average) | $74,970 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AR | $93,300 | $107,319 | Not published by BLS | | MN | $90,760 | $92,029 | 1,040 | | CA | $90,750 | $81,964 | 2,920 | | WI | $89,260 | $94,862 | 650 | | WY | $88,560 | $95,543 | 50 | | OR | $86,230 | $83,426 | 660 | | MA | $81,420 | $76,988 | 880 | | ND | $81,170 | $91,244 | 60 | | NH | $81,020 | $77,780 | 170 | | IA | $80,600 | $91,839 | 270 | | MT | $79,140 | $83,618 | 190 | | CO | $78,470 | $76,146 | 370 | | FL | $76,950 | $74,410 | 2,360 | | TX | $76,820 | $79,149 | 2,880 | | CT | $76,140 | $73,487 | 180 | 36 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 51 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-documentation-integrity-specialist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/clinical-documentation-integrity-specialist. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 42,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 48,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 6,700 jobs, or +15.9%. Much faster than average: 15.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Associate's degree (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** None. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ## What the work involves - Review inpatient records for incomplete or unclear documentation - Write compliant queries asking providers to clarify diagnoses - Identify conditions supported by labs, medications, and treatments - Collaborate with coders on accurate code assignment - Educate physicians on documentation best practices - Track query response rates and documentation trends - Support quality reporting and risk adjustment accuracy - Stay current on coding guidelines and regulations ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Investigative (I), Social (S). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | C — Conventional | 5.97 | | I — Investigative | 5.24 | | S — Social | 4.12 | | R — Realistic | 2.58 | | E — Enterprising | 2.20 | | A — Artistic | 1.18 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | ISTJ | 77.6 | | ISFJ | 76.5 | | ESTJ | 69.4 | | INTJ | 62.2 | | ESFJ | 62.1 | Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISFJ. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Health Information Technologist and Medical Registrar](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-information-technologist-and-medical-registrar) — median $68,020 - [Medical Records Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-records-specialist) — median $51,140 - [Clinical Data Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-data-manager) — median $120,230 - [Health Informatics Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-informatics-specialist) — median $105,850 - [Patient Representative](https://nuecareer.com/careers/patient-representative) — median $50,290 - [Document Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/document-management-specialist) — median $116,580 - [Statistical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistical-assistant) — median $50,330 - [Computer Systems Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-analyst) — median $105,850 - [Database Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-administrator) — median $104,620 - [Clinical Research Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-research-coordinator) — median $167,220 ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/clinical-documentation-integrity-specialist