Training FAQs

AAPC offers training courses for CPC, COC, and CIC certification preparation. The CPC Prep course teaches physician office coding and helps to prepare a student for the CPC certification exam. The COC Prep course teaches coding for an outpatient hospital/facility setting and helps to prepare a student for the COC certification exam. The CIC Prep course teaches coding for an inpatient hospital/facility setting and helps to prepare a student for the CIC certification exam. These are self-study courses in which students work at their own pace, from home, to complete each course within a 4-month timeframe or less. For students who prefer to take a classroom based course, many AAPC certified instructors teach AAPC curriculum throughout the US.

Students should have a strong knowledge in the areas of anatomy and medical terminology. AAPC offers online self-study courses that teach these subjects for students without prior knowledge.

After purchase you will be given access to an online learning management system where the course is held, and you may log in at any time of day at your own convenience to complete course work. There will be a combination of reading material, assignments, quizzes, and tests that are taken and submitted online. Most courses include interactive audio lectures, some with quizzes. Work is graded and scores are posted online. Upon successful completion of the course a certificate of completion is issued. Students must have a computer with a high speed internet connection with compatible operating system and internet/web browser, Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Reader. For best experience, use of a mobile device is not recommended.

You will receive a welcome email within an hour of purchase that contains your course login instructions, username, & password. The first assignment in each course is a reading assignment, so you may need to wait for your textbook delivery to officially get started, but most courses have online textbooks in PDF files so you may start as soon as the login email is received.

Expert AAPC certified coaching instructors are available to assist you with your questions while you are going through the program. Primary correspondence is done via email, but students may call with questions during normal business hours, or set up an appointment to speak with a coach to go over several areas of study.

The CPC Preparation course teaches physician office coding, such as how to assign the proper diagnosis and procedure codes from operative reports and patient charts. This course also helps to prepare you for the CPC certification exam. The CPB Medical Billing course emphasizes billing and only lightly touches on coding, and will prepare you for the CPB certification exam. This course teaches medical billing and reimbursement issues, such as how to take the codes that have already been assigned by the coder and process a claim form, and how to work with 3rd party payers to make sure the claim is processed correctly. It is important that a coder understands billing issues as it helps to decrease claim denials and increase reimbursement. An understanding of billing will also expand a coder’s career opportunities.

As we are not a traditional school or university, AAPC is not accredited by the Department of Education, and therefore not eligible to participate in federally funded financial aid or grant programs. AAPC is registered and adheres to the strict guidelines of the state of Utah Postsecondary Proprietary School Act, where our home office is located. Financial assistance may be available for a course taught at a traditional college by one of our licensed PMCC Instructors. Students in need of federal financial aid may search the AAPC website for a classroom-based course in their area & contact the instructor for specifics:
/training/medical-coding-classes.aspx.

Yes, but AAPC does not issue CEUs prior to certification. For certified members, the following CEUs may be earned for successful completion of each course (some certification exclusions apply):

• Medical Terminology: 20 CEUs
• Anatomy: 20 CEUs
• CPC Preparation: 40 CEUs
• COC Preparation: 40 CEUs
• CIC Preparation: 40 CEUs
• CPB Preparation: 40 CEUs
• CRC Preparation: 30 CEUs
• CPMA Preparation: 20 CEUs
• CPPM Preparation: 20 CEUs
• CPCO Preparation: 20 CEUs

Completion of either the CPC or COC Preparation online courses will waive 80-hours of coding education which waives one year work experience towards the A removal. The student does not need to submit proof of course completion, AAPC will verify this experience as met once the course is completed.

Please use our Locate a Medical Coding Class tool. There you can search by state. Click on details and you will see the contact information. Call contact for additional details for course start date, length of course and cost.

Completing an 80 hour or more classroom course will waive one year experience. A letter or certificate of completion indicating hours completed must be submitted to the AAPC to verify course completion.

Students should have experience or have taken a medical terminology and anatomy course.

Please review our Team Up With AAPC page.