If you've set your eyes on the CPC exam, there's a lot of information out there to help you out. Some of it is free and easily available right on the AAPC's web site.
The AAPC site is so huge that you might miss out on some of the cool resources they have for wannabe Certified Professional Coders. So we talked with some people who have successfully passed their CPC exams for some sure-success AAPC site recommendations.
Deborah Dorton, JD, MA, CPC says that it's important to spend time with the AAPC's official CPC site. While it's also helpful to talk to coders who have come out with flying colors at the exam, some of them may have taken it years ago. The test has undergone changes over the years; as such the AAPC site is your most reliable 411.
Stop #1: An outline for your study attack plan. The topic areas that the exam covers are listed here (www.aapc.com/certification/cpc.aspx). Expect five to ten questions covering each area listed.
Tip: As you map out your study plan, first of all tackle the listed topic areas you know the least about. For instance, if you're a radiology coder who doesn't do much E/M, you should brush up on your E/M skills first. Later on, closer to the test, you can briefly review topic areas you are more familiar with from your coding job.
Stop #2: List of approved manuals you can carry into the exam. Since the exam is 'open book', you can take a CPT, ICD-9 and HCPCS coding manual into the testing room. But certain editions are not allowed as they contain too much added information that you'll be tested on.
Stop #3: Rules for marking tabbing the 'open book.' Tabs may be inserted, taped, pasted, glued or for that matter stapled in the manuals as long as the obvious intent of the tab is to earmark a page with words or numbers, not supplement information in the book, according to the CPC FAQ page.
Tip: Many exam-takers find it helpful to tab parts of the manuals they may not use in their day to day coding jobs. For instance, the anatomical diagrams at the start of your CPC manual or the neoplasm table in your ICD-9 manual can be very beneficial if you run across an anatomy or terminology question that is bogging you down.
About this Author
According to the AAPC site Supercoder.com's Apoorba Ganguly, CPC, who took the test about a year ago, you can also write handwritten notes in the margins of your manuals. He says that he used the margins of his manual to jot down common acronyms or nicknames for procedures described in the code descriptors. He recalls that he noted things like 'TVT' next to CPT code 57284.
Codingcert.com offers more tips for passing the CPC exam the medical coding boot camps and helping you to be a certified coder.
Erin Lang Masercola, PhD, CPC, has been writing about health care law, reimbursement, compliance and HIT for ten years. Most recently, she's been collaborating with medical coders and software engineers to create an amazing new online coding reference tool called Supercoder.com. She is a certified professional medical coder through AAPC.
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