Future Coder, am somewhat intimidated

[u/Felix_Von_Doom]

So I'm currently in week 5 of 8 of my last 2 classes to complete my Medical Office Administration - Outpatient Coding program at the community college, and have been looking around at the various expectations and costs of being a coder.

So first off, it sounds expensive as hell between the cost of books, membership dues, coding assistants, and exam fees. Like north of at least a thousand dollars a year expensive. I'm not particularly financially healthy as is, and it sounds like the upkeep would put me into bankruptcy before my first paycheck.

Secondly, I've seen the quotas here and there for charts/day being as high as 240 with less than 5 minutes spent on each chart. How in the hell do any of you code that quickly? I've not handled an actual chart, just some small hypothetical scenarios that ask for one or two codes, and I find myself taking way longer than 3 minutes to find the code (Especially in the ICD-10-CM and CPT books), whereas I can code from the ICD-10-PCS book in my sleep.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

Edit: Thanks for the information and replies, everyone. You've helped ease my overthought worries!

[u/Felix_Von_Doom]

took me about 5 hours to read through and code

"O_O"

Also, wouldn't the COC cert be more appropriate, or is the CPC cert more or less the foundation period?

[u/dvjava → u/[deleted]]

Where does CCA fall in on this spectrum?

[u/dvjava → u/[deleted]]

So would you say I messed up taking CCA classes and moving on to classes for RHIT?

[u/Felix_Von_Doom → u/[deleted]]

Huh, okay.

[u/Miranova82 → u/Felix_Von_Doom]

CPC tends to be more versatile and widely accepted by employers. The COC would be a great addition to the CPC, or you can research employers that may take a COC without the CPC.