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do you want to be part of the medical
coding industry but don't know how well
in this video I'm going to tell you
everything you need to know so follow me
hey there I'm Victoria I'm a medical
coder auditor educator and content
creator and on my channel I provide tips
for tricks and tutorials to help you be
successful in the medical coding career
if you haven't already highly encourage
you to subscribe hit that notification
Bell so you can get alerts when I post
new episodes so you're interested in a
career in medical coding maybe you want
to be in healthcare but not have to deal
with the patient care side or maybe
you've heard this is a really popular
work from home job it is and you don't
need a college degree which appeals to a
lot of people so let's talk about some
of the steps that you have to take in
order to become a medical coder and some
things that you definitely want to know
before you dive in by the way if you are
looking for my personal recommendation
on how you can get started in this
career and what school you should go to
and train like in as little as six
months like be job ready you want to
sign up for my free master class because
it gives you that full roadmap it's the
exact same advice that I would be
sitting if we were at a coffee shop
together as girlfriends like I don't
want you to go into student loan debt I
want you to get in as quickly as
possible but I want you to get the right
education I want you to get the right
tools and you're going to find out
exactly how to do that by going to
medicalcodingmasterclass.com and finding
out about the program that I recommend
which is preppy or just more about the
medical coding industry things like
salary expectations and some of the
things that I might not go into as depth
in this video it just takes away all of
that guesswork and gives you like those
check boxes of you need this this this
this this and this I will link it in the
description below so make sure you go
and sign up for it let's start with what
is medical coding so medical coding is
that combination of technology and
medical records looking through and
abstracting all of those different
diagnoses those procedures those drugs
all the services that a patient had and
translating them into designated code
sets a lot of times we think of it in a
billing capacity in fact a lot of
programs are called medical billing and
coding training programs sometimes
you'll see people listed as a medical
billing and coding specialist but they
are kind of two separate things so while
there is a large billing aspect of that
because obviously we have to have the
right diagonal OCS and procedures in
order to get reimbursed for those
Services there's also a lot of data
tracking that goes on it's through the
usage of those codes that we can do
things like research how many diabetic
patients are in a certain population how
many of those diabetic patients have
gone on to develop complications what
sort of treatments are effective in
eliminating certain diseases how we have
differentiations between locations where
we maybe have a lot of obese patients in
one area and don't in the other and we
can look at those even social factors of
why that's happening all of that can be
researched through codes it's a lot
harder to do it if we don't have this
data coded if we're just relying on
textual narratives and it really helps
across all of the different Healthcare
platforms and needs that we have to view
all of that data in a very efficient
manner so what a medical coder does is
they read through all of those records
and Abstract that data sometimes with
the prompts from the electronic medical
record and sometimes without so for
example they might have a work queue and
that work queue just have patient names
and medical records and dates of service
on it so they'll go through and click
that first entry in the work queue and
it'll tell them what records to look at
they'll go through and look at the
records and enter in the information the
codes sometimes the provider the doctor
or the nurse practitioner they might put
in an approximation of what that code
might be or maybe even just a
placeholder for that code like they
might put in zero zero zero zero zero or
they might just put something in knowing
that the medical coder is going to
review all of the codes that they have
input some services like maybe a flu
shot are fairly straightforward but
other services can be pretty complex
like surgeries so those are things that
do take more of a Time research skill
capability now most organizations only
hire medical coders that are certified
through either aapc or ahima there are
other organizations out there with great
certifications but most employers when
they're looking to hire someone as a
medical coder they want to see a
certification through aapc or a Hema
usually the CPC through the aapc or the
CCS through ahima the CPC is probably
the most widely looked for by employer
so it is a great one to aim for like if
you are looking into medical coding and
you're like I don't know about all these
different certifications and stuff
CPC is a great one to default to and
that is the program that preppy actually
prepares you for but I want to make sure
that you're not jumping into this
without researching to make sure that
this is going to be a good fit for you
so really look into if this is something
that you think you will enjoy I have a
whole playlist at the beginning of my
channel that says want to be a medical
coder start here that is very bingeable
so you can sit through and watch all of
the really good critical information or
my master class great resource as well
according to the Bureau of labors and
statistics this is still a growing
career and it does offer work from home
capacity a lot of medical coders work
from home there's lots of flexibility
there so there's a better work life
balance for this than some other
healthcare career choices while it
doesn't require you to have clinical
knowledge meaning that you don't need to
know how to give a patient an injection
or take a blood pressure you do need to
know things like medical terminology I
actually have a whole video on
recommendations for that one I'll link
it below as well because you are part of
a big Healthcare team and you need to be
able to speak efficiently to the
different procedures that you're coding
and you need to understand these terms
so that you're not constantly stopping
to Google and look things up because
there is a productivity level to medical
coding productivity levels vary so so
greatly those I can't like tell you how
many codes or charts or anything that
you have to do an hour because while
there are some benchmarks out there it
it can change a lot based off of
organization and a lot of different
other factors and it does require being
able to analyze things things like
Insurance guidelines things like federal
regulations and things change pretty
frequently so it's a great job for
people who are looking to constantly be
learning they don't want to get like
stale and bored with what they're doing
it is definitely a job for lifelong
Learners however and you will see this
anywhere you look into medical coding
there will always be people saying that
it is difficult to find that first job
because strategy is really really
important in there it might take some
time of redoing doing your resume it
might take some time of being strategic
on social media and how you search for
jobs and I I have a whole video on that
as well because definitely it is not
like getting into nursing where you
finish and you can find a job right away
with any training program or degree
there's really no guarantee of a job but
consider this there's a lot of people
that are out there paying tens of
thousands of dollars spending four years
on college degrees and still can't find
a decent job in their field so making
sure that you're getting into a good
training program making sure that you
get certified that you're doing things
like updating your resume that you're
searching the right way again check out
that video
um those those are really going to be
very very key and also things like
making sure that you subscribe to this
Channel and smash that like button okay
so now you've researched that this is
the right job for you you figured out
what certification and what organization
you want to go with you have gotten
training you've gotten certified and
next of course we need to look for a job
you can improve your chances by going to
directly to healthcare organization or
insurance company websites and looking
directly on their job listings because
sometimes they don't expand out much if
they know people are going to go
directly on their website also instead
of searching for just things like
medical coder or medical coding on sites
like indeed or LinkedIn search for some
of those skills search for like ICD-10
or search for CPT and it will bring in
all kinds of different jobs that are
looking for those job skills but might
not necessarily have the title of
medical coder and definitely Network
especially if you're with the aapc they
have lots of local chapters they'll tell
you which one you are automatically
assigned to and that is a great way to
network with other coders in your area
that know of all those hot job openings
sometimes they'll even send email blasts
or post on different Facebook groups for
the local chapters what job openings
they know of but it's also a great way
to network build those relationships
find out where people work and where the
good places to work and where maybe the
not so good places to work and lastly
make sure you get rid of any
apprenticeship status I have a whole
video about the apprenticeship status
but just to quickly summarize the CPC
certification and the COC certification
are the only ones that have this
apprenticeship status in order to have
the apprenticeship status removed you
need to prove that you have two years of
experience working with codes or there's
a couple of things you can do to remove
two years of experience one is if you go
through a training curriculum where you
can prove that you have 80 hours of
Education the second is going through
what they call the practicode which is
basically a module you pay for with the
aapc and they give you a whole bunch of
cases and you have to code them there's
no multiple choice though anymore it's
literally just boxes for the CPT codes
boxes for the modifiers boxes for the
ICD-10 codes and they don't tell you
even how many you just have to figure it
out from scratch and which codes and
modifiers you need the aepc has
suggested a couple of times in the past
even at their national conferences that
they're looking at ways to potentially
remove that Apprentice requirement in
the future it might be through things
like different proficiency modules but
they're not there yet these are the sort
of things with the aapc that
don't hold my breath on they'll be nice
when they happen but let's not count on
them happening anytime soon so medical
coding is a great way to get into that
booming Health Care field there's always
new Specialties and things to learn so
even if you get bored with doing you
know evaluation and management codes you
can go and do OB GYN or you can go and
do Cardiology there's all kinds of
different stuff that you can learn but
you do have to be able to work with
Precision you have to be able to work
efficiently you have to be proficient
with things like research and staying up
with your continuing education units
that are required to keep your
certification a lot of medical coders
love this job because they say it's like
being able to put together the pieces of
a puzzle and there is so much growth
potential not just going from specialty
to Specialty but also learning different
types of coding if you want to go from
doing profy coding to inpatient coding
or risk adjustment coding or just if you
want to get into compliance or if you
want to grow into an auditing position
so if you want to get started head over
to medicalcodingmasterclass.com and you
will find out about everything you need
and you can get started today on the
preppy program I will see you guys in
the next video and until then just keep
on coding on
