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Need of Certified Professional Coder (CPC)

Medical coding is always a booming career for healthcare professionals. In this field, you keep on learning new things and new facilities, which are very interesting to learn. I have never thought a numerical code can define disease or diagnosis and procedure. However, it is quite interesting from the beginning to till now. I always say if you want to achieve something, no one can stop you. Therefore, when I thought of taking medical coding as a career I wanted to be called as a Certified Professional Coder (CPC). So, to achieve this I started working hard for CPC exam preparation.

It was really a joyful moment when I cleared the CPC exam without any training. You can also do it and it is not a rocket science. If you are confident and serious about CPC or CCS exam in medical coding, you should give a try for these exam. I am just here to share few tips about preparing and clearing CPC exam which helped me to pass this exam in first attempt.

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Always Stick to the Guidelines

Now, when I say guidelines you have to follow them blindly. We have both ICD 10 and CPT coding guidelines questions in CPC exam. Since, we have new ICD 10 codes, please try to clear all your doubts about these codes. Since, these codes are alphaneumeric you need to really concentrate more on finding the correct ICD 10 code.

Try to avoid the common mistakes of ICD 10 codes by medical coders. If you know the guidelines, you can clear CPC exam easily. Codebooks will be with you during the exam, just read the guidelines and answer the questions following guidelines. Do highlight the difficult section in guidelines like COVID19 ICD 10 codes, pregnancy, sepsis, diabetes etc. to save time during exam. These techniques do work in exam and can help you in finding answers. ICD guidelines are given in the first few pages of the codebook, while CPT guidelines are given with their respective section. If you want to clear the CPC exam in first attempt just stick to the guidelines. You can get the best sample CPC exam guide here which will surely help you in clearing this exam.

Be Calm and focused during Certified Professional Coder (CPC) exam

We know everyone has exam fear. From 2022, AAPC has decrease the CPC exam time to 4 hours only and the number of questions are only 100 in CPC test. Their will be 100 Multiple choice question. So in 2022, the have to prepare more for the 10 cases which are introduced newly from 2022. Time is also an important factor in exam.

During exam, the time goes very fast and we tend to finish paper fast in last hour. During last half an hour, we might get scared of not finishing the paper. Therefore, I would suggest keeping a bottle of water with you during exam to keep yourself calm.

Do take 1 or 2-minute break if you feel too much pressurized. We might get anxious in last few minutes but if you finish you paper before half an hour it would be great. Always keep some time at the end to just check if you have answered all the questions. If you keep a balance between your mind and brain, you can easily find the correct answer.

Attempt all questions of Certified Professional Coder (CPC) exam paper

You must always finish the whole CPC exam paper. There are no negative marking in CPC exam, hence it will be foolish if you leave any question unanswered. There are 100 questions in CPC exam. So, do try to find answers for questions, which you know first and then try answering the difficult ones. Do plan how to solve the question paper.

Do not start with the difficult section in CPC exam because we would lose a lot of time in the beginning. This will eat up your time and will not allow answering whole question paper.

So, do start with section, which is easy, and less time-consuming and then finally go for the difficult questions. Such trick will help you solve the whole CPC question paper and increases the possibility of clearing the CPC exam in first attempt.

Try to finish CPC exam before time

When I was a school student, my teachers always use to say to finish the paper before time. Here also same rule applies. The simple formula to learn here is, we get a lot of time to check our errors in the answer sheet. I have come across to few unanswered question during my CPC exam while checking my paper in the end .

Hence, it is very important to check the question and answer once again before finishing the whole exam. We may be in hurry to solve the CPC questions, which may commit errors, so it will be good to check at least once the question paper and the answer sheet before finish time.

Most of the silly errors during CPC exam cost you too much. So, to avoid those silly errors do finish and check paper before time. If you follow these techniques, you can remove all the errors and pass the CPC exam in first attempt.

Experience & Benefits of Certified Professional coder (CPC)

The AAPC requires two years of experience before you can earn the designation of CPC. However, you can take the exam before gaining this experience. If you pass, you are granted an apprentice designation, or CPC-A. To remove the “A” and become a full CPC requires submitting two letters of recommendation verifying that the two years have been completed or submitting one letter from your employer verifying one year of experience plus proof of completing 80 contact hours of a coding preparation course.

AAPC membership offers several benefits. With over 200,000 members, you have access to a large pool of healthcare professionals with which you can network. You also get free webinars (4 per year), AAPC product savings, and access to job-finding resources

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that careers in the medical records and health information fields are expected to grow nine percent by the year 2030. This translates into a total projection of 416,400 jobs and is a growth rate that is “as fast as average” for all other occupations combined.