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amber.vereline@atriumhealth.org

amber.vereline@atriumhealth.org

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Charlotte, NC
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After seeing all these posts and complaints along with the amount of money I've spent since I finished my coding course in November, I'm starting to wonder if Medical Coding is even worth it. I hate that I'm saying that because I love coding and have for almost 10 years. I finally got certified by passing the exam in December, only to find out I have to continue to spend money to retain those credentials. And the fact that as you are all saying, you can't get hired without proof of experience, but how do you get that experience if you can't get hired? You have to start somewhere and if we can pass the exam we are all VERY teachable!! There's got to be a way they can help with job placement or recommendations or something. Even the emails from AAPC with the job opportunities all say they need "experienced coders" in specific fields. Should I even apply as a CPC-A? I have the 80-hour course certificate to shave a year off of my "A", but I see now that you can't just submit that, you can only submit that if you also have Practicode or 2 years work experience in coding. Does anyone here do Practicode? Do you suggest I get the package if I want to do it or should I do the $100 a piece and just do a little at a time? I've already spent $1,300 so far towards my coding education and adventure starting November 2023 with the AAPC website membership, now I have to spend even more money with no guarantee of anything. I don't know what to do or how to proceed. If anyone got this far in my message, do you have any advice? I do have experience with correctly coding orders and authorizations for oncology and radiology with my job, just not officially as a medical coder.
 
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If a person has completed an 80-hour course certification, they don't need to submit 2 years of experience for apprentice removal. The course substitutes for one year.

Someone who took a course only needs to submit one year of employment. Course (1 year equivalent) + 1 year of employment experience (Practicode could substitute for this) = the 2 year apprentice removal requirement.

In your case, if you have experience regularly working with codes, you wouldn't have to do Practicode. (unless you wanted that extra practice)

If you're regularly using codes on the job, I would check with your employer about getting a verification letter. Your job doesn't have to have a Medical Coder title, it just has to involve utilizing and maneuvering through the ICD-10-CM, CPT, and HCPC code sets on a daily basis (see the employment verification template letter for the exact phrasing).

If your current (or any past) employer feels like your job responsibilities meet the statement said on the template, they can print a letter on company letterhead & you can submit for apprentice removal.

Here's the link to the template:
 
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I agree with the last person, I was getting very worried when I first started job searching. Although I had been working in the healthcare industry for many years, all the positions related to coding that I looked at required at least 1 if not 3 years of experience coding. I was in that classic new coder catch-22. I was finally able to get a job working with a company that performs healthcare business services (AR, coding, AP, etc). Although my position is not strictly a medical coder, I am getting a lot of experience coding path reports, reviewing codes on medical claims, handling denials based on coding issues, reviewing reports for MIPS requirements and more. All of these will go towards getting that experience required to remove the A and get a dedicated coding job if that's what I decide to pursue. I found this job by searching for local "medical billing and coding companies" in my area. I had better luck with this than looking specifically for coding positions or looking within medical practices.
 
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Also, if you have experience in authorizations for oncology and radiology, that's great experience for a coding position.

I work in oncology. Our department manager has hired newer coders in the past - normally they'd start working edits & denials. If she were hiring for one of those positions and had someone who already knew oncology through doing auths, I'm sure that candidate's application would be one of the ones to get an interview.

We're in Ohio and don't have an open positions in our department right now, but if she'd find your experience valuable I'm sure that oncology practices in your area may too.

Is growing into a coding role at your current employer an option?
 
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There is already great advice here by @sls314 and @Morella1. I think you likely qualify to have the A removed.
Regarding hiring, attitude/personality is more than 50% of my decision about who to hire. I want a certain baseline of knowledge and a problem solving mentality. I can't teach someone a better work personality or teach them to be inquisitive (but can and hopefully do encourage it). I can teach someone what codes to use for a total abdominal hysterectomy with BSO, debulking and 90 minutes of HIPEC. I purposely ask coding questions during interviews that I don't really expect someone to know the answer off the top of their head. I do expect them to try to relate it to something they do know and give a possible answer with an explanation why, or to tell me how they would find the answer.
I'll also give my opinion about Practicode. While it's designed to substitute for work experience to remove the -A, I do not know ANYONE who considers it work experience. To me, it is additional training. So if I'm looking for someone without experience, someone with Practicode on their resume might stand out. But someone with authorization experience would stand out even more. If I want someone with a minimum of 1 year of coding experience, someone with Practicode only will not get an interview.
Ultimately, NO ONE BUT YOU can make a decision about whether or not any job or any career path is worth it. For example, I went to undergrad for actual science (using statistics to assess risk). My final semester, I realized I could not spend the next 40+ years of my life doing that or commuting into NYC (where the vast majority of actuary jobs were). Regardless of spending 4 years of college training for it. It took 15-20 years of healthcare adminstration experience to make the salary of a starting actuary. But I do not dread going to work, enjoy what I do at least 95% of the time, and am able to pay my bills. On paper, it may have looked like a poor financial decision. However, on paper does not account for my personal happiness or job satisfaction.
If you love coding, then keep looking for a coding position while you work a related job. Good luck!
 
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I'm frustrated too. I got my A removed from my current employer and I've been looking for a job for the last 3 months and all jobs require experience and I don't have any directly applying codes. I feel cheated because I was under the impression that I would be able to find a job quickly after getting certified but that's not the case. Some people have told me it takes up to 12 months to find a coding job. This is unrealistic in my opinion.
 
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Thank you all so much for your responses :) To answer some questions in one reply I did check to see if there were any open coding positions at my location Atrium Health (Charlotte, NC) and there are many open positions, but it's like applying blindly because they don't give details at all about the location or what you'll be coding, they all say the same thing. Since I currently work for this company I don't want to just send my resume all over the place in case that manager knows my manager and says something to them. I'm in a very weird position that I was hired to work a new portal (over a year ago) and that portal is still not ready to put me to work like I like to be, busy and always having something to do. I was told by my manager I could take the coding course through Atrium since it would help with my position and now that I have that certification I need to use it or I'll lose it, and I'm currently losing it because I'm not getting the practice I would like to have on the daily to keep it all fresh. I can't help but feel guilty looking for other positions with my manager not knowing, but the thing is I'm not really included in anything with this position (including meetings) and I don't really feel like I'm part of this team. I know most people would like just sitting and holding a position, but like I said this new certification is only costing me more money, so I need to use it to get something out of it. I'm just stuck. I think I will do PractiCode even though it's more money to keep that practice in. I do know my current manager won't write the letter showing I have experience because I have another coworker that had the same question and she was told no. I could ask my last manager to do it because she definitely has that proof that I have that experience, however I feel like that would be a sneaky thing to do to my current manager and I feel like I owe it to her to just sit. It's just a waiting game. Hopefully this new position will start paying off and I can get back to using my brain again the way it needs to be used, and in the meantime I'll just work on getting rid of this A in case later I do need to job search and I'll have an easier chance of being noticed with the experience and the CPC credential. Thank you all for your help and guidance with this :)
 
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amber.vereline@atriumhealth.org said:
After seeing all these posts and complaints along with the amount of money I've spent since I finished my coding course in November, I'm starting to wonder if Medical Coding is even worth it. I hate that I'm saying that because I love coding and have for almost 10 years. I finally got certified by passing the exam in December, only to find out I have to continue to spend money to retain those credentials. And the fact that as you are all saying, you can't get hired without proof of experience, but how do you get that experience if you can't get hired? You have to start somewhere and if we can pass the exam we are all VERY teachable!! There's got to be a way they can help with job placement or recommendations or something. Even the emails from AAPC with the job opportunities all say they need "experienced coders" in specific fields. Should I even apply as a CPC-A? I have the 80-hour course certificate to shave a year off of my "A", but I see now that you can't just submit that, you can only submit that if you also have Practicode or 2 years work experience in coding. Does anyone here do Practicode? Do you suggest I get the package if I want to do it or should I do the $100 a piece and just do a little at a time? I've already spent $1,300 so far towards my coding education and adventure starting November 2023 with the AAPC website membership, now I have to spend even more money with no guarantee of anything. I don't know what to do or how to proceed. If anyone got this far in my message, do you have any advice? I do have experience with correctly coding orders and authorizations for oncology and radiology with my job, just not officially as a medical coder.
Click to expand...
Hi Amber,

The advice I received as a new coder is to try and get your foot in the door with a company even if you aren't coding. I too struggled to find a coding position as a CPC-A. I looked for companies in my area that offered coding positions (most wanted experience), but I also looked at other positions those companies offered. I applied for a job data entering medical bills. I did make my intentions known during my interview and during performance evaluations with my supervisor that my goal was to obtain a coding position. Once in that position for a while, after gaining experience regarding the company's software and internal processes, I was promoted to a coding position. It takes time and patience, but it is possible. Hang in there!
 
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