Benefits of Becoming an Approved CEU Vendor
- AAPC CEU approval for your education
- AAPC recognition on our CEU Vendor webpage, giving visibility to 88,000 members
- "AAPC CEU Approved" logos to use in your marketing
- Confidence that your education meets the high standards of the AAPC
Applying for CEU Approval
Applications for Prior CEU Approval will be received from the vendor, the sponsoring organization. A vendor is the entity responsible for advertising, marketing, and sales, of a product or event. A member may make prior submittal for an educational event. Approval will be for that member only.
Select an application according to the media of presentation:
- Live or Recorded Live, Seminars, Workshops, Audios, Courses and Post-Secondary School Courses
- Educational Publications and Book-Based Self Study Courses
- Online Education (curriculum that builds methodically, brick upon brick, to tell a larger story)
- Newsletters and Magazines (comprised of numerous topics, advertisements, non-coding tidbits like surveys, interspersed with the articles; delivered via hard copy, email or web).
The first three pages of the document are informational and outline the requirements for prior approval. The fourth page of the document is the business page. The business page is numbered page one of the application form. On this page you will select the type of application you are submitting. You will choose from:
- Regular (application with payment)
- In-service (employee-to-employee training; monies not exchanged at any level of participation)
- PMCC (current license owned by the sponsoring organization)
- Marketing Contract (current contract with the AAPC)
- Instructor at a Post-Secondary School (CEUs are for the instructor only.)
The business page requests basic information about the sponsoring organization, the application contact, and the presenter(s). If your application requires payment you may enter credit card information on this page. Be assured, the AAPC site is a secure site. Applications paid with a check should be mailed together to the AAPC. All others may be faxed or emailed.
The next pages will ask you to choose the exact type of presentation or product. These pages also contain the most recent guidelines for the media you are applying under. You will be advised as to the required documents and or products to submit with your application. The last portion of the Live or Recorded Live and the Online application forms request information that will be entered into the AAPC database to be used in a search tool for members seeking specific CEUs. Members will soon have the ability to search for events based on their geographic location, specialty, level of expertise, and media type.
A complete application must be received 21-30 days prior to marketing or first event date. Incomplete applications received 21 days or less, prior to the marketing or event date, will be charged a $50.00 late submission fee. Once the application is made complete it will be placed into a two week review cycle. If the marketing or event date is within the two week review cycle, a $50.00 fee will be charged to fast track the application. The approval is valid for 12 months. The event may be repeated during the year.
Upon approval you will be emailed a letter of approval, an evaluation form, and a PDF certificate displaying the title of your event and a unique index number with a specified CEU value. If your request is for a multi-specialty conference with breakout sessions, you will be emailed a CEU Code Card in place of the PDF Certificate. Please give all attendees a copy of the original PDF certificate or CEU Code Card sent to you by the AAPC. These are the only documents the AAPC will accept from a member for CEUs. The documents are not to be altered, other than adding the name of the attendee, the date of the course, and the approved index number if it is not recorded. The CEU Code Card may also require session titles and specialty assignments be added. The evaluation form is for your benefit as much as ours at the AAPC. Please return only those forms with a negative comment to validate a selection of a one or two critique.
Please feel free to contact us at 800-626-2633 ext 155 with any concerns. Your ideas and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
Guidelines for CEU Approval
The AAPC will not award CEUs for publications or software considered to be a tool that a coder would or could use at his/her desk to perform his/her responsibilities.
Examples would be CPT®, ICD-9 or HCPCS Level II desk reference books, medical dictionaries and software containing reference material.
The AAPC will award CEUs for Educational Publications and Self Study Guides as follows:
- 50 pages of quality curriculum plus a final test of 10 questions equals 1.0 CEU
- 100 pages of quality curriculum plus a final test of 20 questions equals 2.0 CEUs
- 150 pages of quality curriculum plus a final test of 30 questions equals 3.0 CEUs
- 200 pages of quality curriculum plus a final test of 40 questions equals 4.0 CEUs
The final test must be corrected online or by the sponsoring organization prior to the member receiving a CEU certificate of completion. The test must be passed by the participant with a 70 percent score or higher.
Four CEUs is the maximum. More pages and more questions will not be awarded higher CEU value.
Monthly and Bimonthly Newsletters and Magazines will be approved as follows:
- Between 8-24 pages of education with a final 5-question test will receive .5 CEU
- A publication of 25 pages or greater of education with a final 10-question test will receive 1 CEU
Weekly Newsletters will be approved as Bimonthly Newsletters, meaning that approvals will be given for only two weeks of the monthly newsletters. The vendor will be requested to submit issue numbers or the dates of the issues they request CEUs for.
The final test for Newsletters and Magazines must be corrected by the sponsoring organization prior to the member receiving a CEU certificate of completion. The test must be passed by the participant with a 70 percent or higher.
If a Self-Study Publication is composed of coding scenarios as a practice tool, each scenario must have rationale provided. The rationale will be considered the curriculum, the educational component. CEUs will be awarded according to information-rich rationale. The coding scenarios must be corrected by the sponsoring organization prior to the participant receiving a CEU certificate of completion. The member must pass with a 70 percent or higher. For an example of an acceptable coding scenario and acceptable rationale, please call 1-800-626-2633 ext 155.
Live or Recorded events including Seminars, Workshops, Audios, Teleconferences, Live Web-Based Trainings, Courses, and Post Secondary School Courses, are considered “Timed Sessions.” Timed Sessions will receive one CEU per hour of training with a maximum of 40 hours.
- Live sessions do not require a final test. AAPC allows for limited CEUs for testing as a supplement to curriculum. Supplemental test questions require information-rich rationales. Excluding post secondary school courses, up to 1 CEU for a pre- or post-test can be awarded as a supplement to a one hour training. No more than 2 CEUs may be awarded for a pre- or post-test of not less than two hours of training. Supplemental CEUs cannot total more than the CEU value of the live event and no more than 3 supplemental CEUs can be associated with any single live event.
- Recorded products require a post-test to verify attendance. This test essentially activates the CEUs from the recorded event, and does not require rationales. Each recorded event CEU requires 10 questions, up to 3 CEUs. No additional questions are required beyond 30 to earn CEUs for recordings of duration beyond three hours.
- A vendor can opt to include rationales with each question on its mandatory test for recorded curriculum, to earn up to 3 supplemental CEUs. Supplemental CEUs cannot total more than the CEU value of the recorded event and no more than 3 supplemental CEUs can be associated with any single recorded event. That means a three-hour recording could be valued at 6 CEUs: 3 for the test with rationales, and 3 for the recording; but without rationales, the same test and recording would be worth 3 CEUs.
An Online Web-based “screen” is not the equivalent of a page in a document. To ensure the appropriate CEU assignment is made for this type curriculum, the number of words in the curriculum is determined, and one CEU is awarded for every 7,000 words. In the event an audio accompanies an online training, the audio time component will be taken into consideration. A PDF accompanying the online training may also add value. Online curriculum requires a final test to ensure materials were actually read and absorbed. The test should be based on the curriculum word count: 10 questions for each 7,000 words. Consideration will be given for any information-rich rationales that accompany the test questions. The test must be corrected by the sponsoring organization. The participant must pass with a score of 70 percent or greater to be awarded the CEUs.
The following are guidelines for promoting your approved educational programs. These guidelines ensure your customers, and potential customers, are educated as to the continuing education you have been approved to offer them.
Marketing via Print Media:
- The AAPC will allow the vendor the ability to use the AAPC CEU Approved Logo for purposes of promoting approved coding products. The vendor can use the CPC®, CPC-H®, CPC-P®, CIRCC® or CPMA™ in the body of marketing materials but is not permitted to use the CPC®, CPC-H®, CPC-P®, CIRCC® or CPMA™ in the title or headline of marketing materials
- The following statement must be used in marketing brochures and other advertisements to indicate AAPC approval of the educational program. The following statement must always accompany the CEU Approved Logo. See Asterisk *
*This program has the prior approval of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) for _________ continuing education hours. Granting of prior approval in no way constitutes endorsement by the AAPC of the program content or the program sponsor.
- When a vendor markets inside a publication using the AAPC Logo and the AAPC statement of approval, they must include the expiration date of the approval
Online Marketing
- The AAPC will allow the vendor the ability to use the AAPC CEU Approved Logo for purposes of promoting approved coding products. The vendor can use the CPC®, CPC-H®, CPC-P®, CIRCC® or CPMA™ in the body of marketing materials but are not permitted to use the CPC®, CPC-H®, CPC-P®, CIRCC® or CPMA™ in the title or headline of marketing materials.
- The AAPC has prepared the logo and text to be displayed on the web page promoting your AAPC approved-program. Choose the size and arrangement that best suits your needs. Do not alter the logo and text arrangement. Doing such would void your vendor agreement with the AAPC.
- The following statement must be used in marketing brochures and other advertisements to indicate AAPC approval of the educational program. The following statement must always accompany the CEU Approved Logo. See Asterisk *
*This program has the prior approval of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) for _________ continuing education hours. Granting of prior approval in no way constitutes endorsement by the AAPC of the program content or the program sponsor.
Offline Marketing
- The AAPC will allow the vendor the ability to use the AAPC CEU Approved Logo for purposes of promoting approved coding products. The vendor can use the CPC®, CPC-H®, CPC-P® CIRC® or CPMA™ in the body of marketing materials but are not permitted to use the CPC®, CPC-H®, CPC-P®, CIRCC® or CPMA™ in the title or headline of marketing materials.
- You may use these PDF files in your offline marketing efforts. They should be large enough in resolution and size to accompany your document.
- The following statement must be used in marketing brochures and other advertisements to indicate AAPC approval of the educational program. The following statement must always accompany the CEU Approved Logo. See Asterik *.
*This program has the prior approval of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) for _________ continuing education hours. Granting of prior approval in no way constitutes endorsement by the AAPC of the program content or the program sponsor.
Advertising with the AAPC
AAPC-approved CEU Vendors have the opportunity to advertise their classes, conferences, trainings, and other offerings with the AAPC. Our print, email and Web site advertising offer an excellent vehicle by which to promote your company's offerings to a dedicated audience of more than 88,000 medical coders and billers. For more information on advertising with the AAPC, contact Jamie Zayach, Advertising Coordinator, at 800-626-2633 x 191 or at jamie.zayach@aapc.com. For information on ad rates, sizes, due dates, etc, please see the AAPC Media Kit.