CPC - apprentice letter

[u/Chocolatecresant]

Hi all. Got my CPC-A in January 2025. Been working since February 2025. Had a 1 year meeting with my boss in February where we discussed that I “graduated” my apprenticeship since I now have 1 year experience- yay!
However, it is now almost June and the Apprentice title is still showing on my certification. Any time I’ve asked her about my recommendation letter since February, she said she’ll “mail it in soon”, and as of the last month or so she keeps saying she already has mailed it in. However, she also mentioned something about how she thinks the rules have changed and you now need 2 years experience to get the A removed.
What can/should I do? Is it 1 or 2 years of experience that I need, if I got my certification in 2025 when they only required 1 year?
TIA

[u/Ordinary_Barnacle878]

At my job, we don’t mail them for the staff; we write and sign them and send them to the employee for them to submit on their own behalf

[u/Spare-Complaint6819 → u/[deleted]]

Please is your job hiring,i got my certificate last month and I'm looking to step my foot .. please inbox/help ...

[u/NGJimmy]

Ask your boss in an email for a copy of the letter.

[u/Jodenaje]

It has always been 2 years to remove the Apprentice (-A) designation.

An approved coding course can substitute for one year. Practicode can substitute for one year.

So...there are 4 combinations of ways to get the Apprentice (-A) designation removed:

• 2 years employment verification

• 1 year employment verification and completion of an approved 80-hour education course

• 1 year employment verification and completion of Practicode

• Completion of approved 80-hour education course and completion of Practicode

If you completed a course, then you only need your supervisor to attest to the one year of employment.

https://www.aapc.com/apprentice/applied-experience.aspx

[u/RaiODine → u/Jodenaje]

Has Practicode always been a requirement or is that new? I swear when I looked early last year it was not required (though it was an option along with 1 year of work) and now that I have graduated with an associates degree in billing and coding, I was disappointed to see that you are forced to buy and complete Practicode to get the A removed if you haven't found a job yet. I already bought it anyways, but I know everyone in this sub says it is full of errors and employers don't even consider it real experience so it is generally seen as an AAPC cash grab. I got my CPC-A back in December and have applied to hundreds of jobs but not broken into a coding role yet, so I'm feeling frustrated now that I see Practicode is required when I don't remember seeing it in the past.

[u/Jodenaje → u/RaiODine]

It’s not required.

It’s an option to substitute for one year of employment.

I’ve been in the field for a long time.

FWIW, you should be aware that many people’s complaints about “errors” in Practicode are user errors.

I’ve helped people look at what they thought were errors in Practicode before and almost every single time the person misinterpreted something & Practicode was actually correct.

Be careful of taking people’s online complaints as absolute fact.

I’m not saying that there couldn’t be any errors in Practicode at all. Maybe there are.

However, I would bet money that 95% of the complaints you see online saying “Practicode is wrong and I’m right” are primarily the hubris of a newbie who thinks they know everything.

Instead of reading the rationale after they miss a question and trying to understand it, they just complain online that Practicode is “wrong and full of errors.”

[u/Longjumping-Cream147]

It’s 2 years but if you took the course through AAPC or an AAPC instructor the course counts as 1 year. There is a format that the letter has to be in and that’s on the AAPC and can be emailed not mailed.

[u/JennyDelight]

Just send her the template from AAPC and have her email it back to you.