As you are here, you're probably a medical coder or preparing to certify - Nice to meet you! If you hope to find free CEUs, testing help, or answers to coding related questions you are in the right place. What you won't find is any attempt to charge you for anything. Nothing on this site requires payment, registration or the giving out of information. It is completely free to navigate.
Looking for information/documentation/CEUs is difficult. Paywalls make the search even harder. When I was preparing for my certifications I spent a lot of time looking for information and a lot of money to get information that is freely available. It made a hard (and expensive) learning journey harder and more expensive. This is an attempt to create the website I wished for back then.
Whether you are self-studying for your first exam, looking for help with terminology or somewhere to get a CEU - I have your back.
For anyone who is considering this career, I'd like you to know that it is highly dynamic. It is great fun for me, because I love researching and learning. If you don't, you might have an enjoyable and satisfying career - but you won't love it. Either way, I encourage you to consider your personal goals, interest and the local job market. Many new coders find it difficult to land that first job. The best advise I have is to take any job in an HIM department you can get - or do an internship. Go to chapter meetings of the organizations, call HIM managers and ask if you can shadow in their departments. It is not a waste of time for an aspiring coder to learn other areas of HIM. Understanding the whole picture will make you a more valuable employee and improve your chances of a permanent position.
In that vein, it may be of use to some readers to include a brief introduction to medical coding.
The accurate assigning of codes to diseases, injuries, treatments, and procedures recorded on the medical record is essential to the healthcare process. It ensures accurate record-keeping and facilitates insurance billing. The coder job is the translator of complex medical information (and sometimes providers' handwriting) into precise standardized codes.
The most important tools for the MC are the following books -
1. The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT): Covers physician services like surgeries and evaluations.
2. International Classification of Diseases (ICD): Defines and reports diseases and health conditions globally. The full name of the one we in the US use is ICD-10-CM. This indicates the tenth edition of the ICD, modified for this country. Several countries are using the ICD 11.
3. Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS): Contains the codes for services like ambulance transport and medical equipment.
While medical coding clearly supports healthcare facility finances, it also contributes to health data and research. By tracking disease trends and informing public health decisions.
The basic coding process is:
1. Abstract information from medical documentation
2. Query providers if needed
3. Assign diagnosis and procedure codes
4. Verify medical necessity
5. Check for accuracy.
Every week I am adding more information. There is a lot to medical coding and I want to ensure everything that I post is as concise, accurate and useful as I can. So if something you need is missing, look again later, it'll eventually pop up.