I struggle with this exam with the fact that it is very broad. The compliance part wasn't that hard for me as I have worked in compliance and have been a Privacy Officer. I have coded a wide range over the years, but not all specialties and types at the same time. Yes an auditor needs to be able to do a wide range of types of records. However, truth is the auditors I know will focus on one area of record types at a time. It would be helpful if the exam was split into outpatient and inpatient and possibly profee coding. Yes there is overlap, but there are different areas of specialty coding for sure. There are many AAPC coder credentials so this seems obvious. If you look for a job as a coder you will never see a job listed for all types of services and charts at random, actually never happens. There are outpatient coders, inpatient coders, specialty coders, surgical coders, profee coders, HCC coders, etc. Why would an auditor be all over the place coding 10+ different specialties at the same time? Doesn't happen. So I think I will take AHIMA's auditor credential. Their credential split between outpatient and inpatient. That seems a bit more reasonable.
The other part of these types of exams that is not reasonable in today's world of technology is that there is, well technology. Coders and auditors I know don't sit around with books flipping pages for hours at a time. They use code look up tools, compliance tools, coding edit tools etc. Are some of you memorizing all the NCCI edits and drug quantities and units allowed or looking them up all day? Probably not. If you did you WOULD NOT make productivity. So having a test where you look up all the variables that exist in coding isn't real at all. Not a fan of fantasy coding tests. I am a fan of taking certification exams from the real world.