if you're ready to dive into a career in healthcare that's super flexible super rewarding and you don't have to work with patients you are in the right place today we are going to be discussing how to become a medical coder I'm going to break it down for you step by step how you can go from someone with no experience to how you get the right training how you get certified how you can land a job so let's get into it hey everyone I'm Victoria I'm a medical coder auditor educator and content creator and on my channel I provide tips tricks and tutorials to help you be successful in a medical coding career if you haven't already I would highlight highly encourage you to subscribe because you don't want to click off of this video and then forget who I am because I'm going to help you along a huge journey of medical coding everything from practice reviews case studies career tips like I cover the whole gamut first thing let's talk about what is medical coding so medical coding is the process of taking things that are documented in the medical record and converting them into unified codes it kind of goes hand inand in Billing but it has a lot more functions than that every diagnosis procedure drug supply has a designated code so we can track and Trend them in addition to doing billing but we also need to do things like run budgets we also need to make sure that if we have patients in certain populations that are developing a certain disease that we can track and Trend that or if patients who are getting a certain condition are developing complications or if people in certain areas are more prone to certain injuries like farmer accidents we need to track that and we can do that all and we can piece through that information much more easily by organizing it by code so if you're someone who loves details and problem solving and you've kind of had an interest in healthcare like maybe you love watching Gray's Anatomy but you're like oh I don't know that I would want to have to deal with patients and all this different stuff like you there's jobs that are behind the scenes like medical coding it is a very big one and you get often times the ability to work from home medical coders for a long period of time have worked from home it used to be though that you would have to work in the office demonstrate that you have a certain level of accuracy and speed and then they' let you work from home but now because of the pandemic and work from home being just such a higher priority for people you can start working from home more commonly from day one now medical coders as far as tools we use books in training you will probably be given either paper books or ebooks we do use book books there are search tools we do have some Automation in there too so some places might have things that will kind of scan through a note and go okay here's some of the things we picked out can you verify this is this correct did we miss something because it is very very subjective and having errors can be pretty significant Healthcare is obviously very expensive so if we're continuing to code something incorrectly we could be losing out on money or if we are submitting claims that are incorrect it could be viewed as fraud there could be reviews cash take backs penalties for it so it really needs a certain level of accuracy to it now when you decide to become a medical coder you have to figure out kind of what certification you want to get or what type of coding you want to do because certain training programs will prepare you for certain certifications there's some code sets that like I don't work with icd10 PCS because that's for inpatient coding and I don't do inpatient coding eventually I will learn that code set but I haven't yet today if you're not sure and you're like hey Victoria just like what's kind of like the gold standard go with the CPC that certified professional coder it's through the eapc it has a lot easier access you can get training online it's a good one for a wide variety of medical coding jobs however inpatient coding does tend to pay a little bit more it's a little bit more intense though the training is more intense you're going to have to have a lot more clinical knowledge in order to understand some of the things that go on there and you have to be very careful because while for the credentials that are good for inpatient coding which would be the CCS through AA or the cic through the aapc while they don't have to be from an accredited organization you do have to have training that trains you specifically in the icd10 PCS code set it's kind of like different programming languages in a way like you can't program certain things if you don't know that specific coding language however medical coding in itself is not a programming language is more like a translation sort of tool a lot of programs that are out there that say that they're just Medical building and coding programs generally speaking are going to train you on ICD 10cm CPT and hipic so if you want to get into inpatient coding and code for facility and that's kind of like the room and board for when you're in the hospital like your whole Hospital stay and everything involved in it that is inpatient facility coding it uses icd10 PCS very different than professional fee coding or outpatient coding or risk adjustment coding most employers are looking for certifications through aapc or aema there's other certifications organizations out there that are okay sometimes your Educational Institute will give you free or included certifications through those bodies and they're really only covered though in pockets of areas so you really in order to cast a wide net and be very appealing to employers you want to have one of those certifications through aapc or Hema now let's talk about medical coding training there's a couple of different ways to do this a lot of people want to self-study and there are options out there in fact I have a whole video that I will link for you below on how to self-study medical coding that is an option so if you want tools to do that get the Bucks step-by-step medical coding books that is going to train you in medical coding uh there's a workbook for that as well but then you need to get the code books themselves and I would also probably get like some practice exams and review classes as well because self-study in medical coding does not mean free because there's a lot of tools and resources that you need to purchase in order to learn them you can also check your local community colleges and your local technical schools because often times they will provide you financial aid or some sort of Grant or your employers May reimburse them so if you're getting employer reimbursement definitely check into that and what the specifications are of where you may or may not have to go I would recommend not paying too much though you really don't need an Associates Degree for medical coding they just want you to have correct training and correct certifications an associates degree may be helpful if you eventually want to get into man agement or get into a higher career ladder position but it's really not necessary for just a general medical coding position you can also train directly through the aapc so if you want the CPC credential you can go directly through the aapc they have different package deals so they often times will sell you one that has a lot of training bundled in so it's the training program the books your exam fee practice exam study guides all kinds of stuff but then that's going to cost you a lot because you're getting all all of these things bundled in I wouldn't recommend spending more than a few thousand on medical coding training in total so even I think the aapc program would might be $5,000 for like one of their top tier programs so if you're looking at a technical school or an online training program that's going to charge you a ton that might be a little bit of a red flag you might want to take that and get some recommendations on it now if you want my personal recommendation on where you should go for medical coding training you definitely want to sign up for my free career master class at medical coding masterclass.com and I will tell you more about preppy which is the program that I recommend the reason that I recommend preppy is because they have a lot of tools that other organizations don't they really really want to have good customer service so they take amazing care of all the viewers that I recommend over to them they have things like externship programs they have ebooks that they will send you that are included in your program they are extremely cost effective and they can get you job ready in as little as six months everything's flexible it's online at your own pace I definitely recommend that you check it out you can sign up again for the free career master class at medical coding masterclass.com to find out more a lot of times too if you go through like a formal College like you go through an associates degree program they'll throw in things that you don't need in order to become a medical coder like they'll make you take an art class or a philosophy class and you really really don't need those to become a medical coder oftentimes the reason they do that is because they need to for governmental purposes like fit the program into a certain box so they have to have certain credit hours honestly go through preppy because they're amazing all right so we've chosen what certification we're aiming towards we've gotten our training next we have to pass that certification exam so the certification exams are going to test you on not just how to look up codes they're going to be very indepth they are open code books so you can look up the codes the codes aren't structured in such a way that you can really memorize them there's over like a 100,000 between icd10 CPT and hicp piics so it would be akin to like trying to memorize a phone book so do your General Studies and then focus a couple of weeks on specifically the certification exam strategies for the exam taking do practice exams go through study guides I have a whole playlist on the front of this channel for CPC review so if you're going for the CPC credential watch through all of that the tests are really on understanding coding guidelines how to apply codes how to code for multiple proced procedures multiple diagnoses they're going to test you on the whole gamut too so it's not just going to be a couple of different segments they're going to test you a few questions about skin heart lungs neurology eyes like they're going to test you on everything and the CPC exam is very randomized so they have this huge test Bank of over a thousand questions and they're going to pick a hundred to pull from in different categories to put on your exam it's going to be electronic you can either take it at home via a remote Proctor which means that someone's going to be watching you as you take the exam or at an exam Center because of this you can't really try to memorize questions that might be on the exam you really have to focus on what are some of the concepts that are more common to appear on the exam so yeah go get your training and then spend a couple of weeks focusing on specifically how to pass the exam because there's things that are like this is how we do it in the real world but then there's okay if we are looking at a certification exam that is multiple choice and we have four selections here's how we can quickly navigate through that there's also certain methodologies that people will say to do that you can Circle and highlight and notate your books in a certain way that is very helpful for some people and other people it's just way too timec consuming and it might be better to kind of focus your time on understanding the nuances of medical coding versus trying to turn your book into a coloring book there is some talk that they may allow ebooks soon for the certification exam may give you the option to use a paperbook or an ebook and there's talk also about fill-in-the blank questions you'll probably hear about that but it's been kind of I don't want to say tabled but put more on the back burner right now so some of the practice exams that the aepc has now will have some fill-in-the blank questions where they're just like figure out the codes and there is talk about doing that on the actual exam eventually but there's no date and it's going to be notified way way way in advance if and when that happens and of course the next thing you want to do is find a job you probably aren't learning medical coding just for fun it's because you want to get a job in this which is why organizations like preppy that offer externships are so valuable if you have a program that offers you an externship or an internship please please take it I have seen coders that I've taught in programs in the past when I was teaching in person that opted not to take internships and I really feel like it did make a difference in their career and not being able to find a position position you also need to make sure that your resume is updated that your credentials are very prominent at the top of your name on your resume that you have your training that you have where you went to that there's no spelling errors there are organizations out there like project resume which is linked in the description or you can use Sarah Reagan from caffeinated coder she does amazing rums but you really need to have your resume updated and targeted for medical billing and coding positions networking is also huge in this industry so you can Network on LinkedIn but I would suggest you get in touch with local chapters as a medical coder you will have local chapters that you can go to if you're with the aapc they also have some through aema they're not as active as aapc they have an amazing connections and network they're very very active in building Community with the aapc so you're going to be assigned a local chapter you can go to meetings there you can talk about jobs there you can connect with people so get involved do some networking that's going to be one of your key successes in finding a position and then lastly you need to stay up to date as a medical coder you're required to have continuing education units as a CPC if you just have the CPC credential you need 36 cus every other year basically one hour of Education equates to one cuu there's a lot of free and cheap resources for this in fact I have whole videos on just where to find free and cheap cus because there's a ton of them out there but you can also earn them through through webinars conferences sometimes there's modules you can complete so there's lots and lots of different ways to get your cus you can get them completely online if you want if you want to do some in person if you want to go to the huge National Conference that's also an option as well as you advance in your career there's also specialty certifications more so with the aapc so you can specialize in OBGYN you can specialize in Risk adjustment you can specialize in compliance or auditing so there's lots of career growth opportunities as you get out there and get those feelers you might find that you really love oncology and you want to work at a Cancer Center risk adjustment is a great field too so if you're training and you find out you really really love icd10 CM I have a training program for risk adjustment for the CRC credentials or the RC micro credential through aema and it's a companion course so if you already know like the gamut of medical coding and you're like just tell me the risk adjustment portion of it and what I need to know maybe for some of those certifications out there I have a companion course so you could buy like the study guide and my companion course and be good you can find that on my website at KOC coding.com there's also a huge demand for educators and consultants in various different organizations and Fields so there's a lot of different ways to Branch out in medical coding I've known some people that they get into the revenue cycle and they're like you know what I really love working with the electronic medical records and they wind up going into more of an it kind of aspect where they're programming the medical record functions but that coding knowledge really comes into to play because they understand why the coding has to be accurate and the impact that some of the programming then has with the revenue cycle and reimbursement as a whole so that's it that's how you can become a medical coder in 2025 so figure out what certification or what kind of coding you want to do make sure you get through the right training program pass that certification tailor your stuff for your job and then just keep on growing and if you're really serious about starting this journey definitely check out medical coding masterclass.com because I will lay everything out for you and tell you more about my recommendation for a specific training program thanks for watching don't forget to like share and subscribe I will see you guys in the next video and until then just keep on coding on