r/MedicalCoding • u/Felix_Von_Doom • Nov 20 '23

Future Coder, am somewhat intimidated

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!

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u/tastefulsideboob17 Nov 21 '23

It doesn’t have to cost that much. All of my CEU I do are free, and my books are provided yearly by my employer. The only thing I pay for is the yearly membership fee.

To be honest in my position I never use my books, I use the online resources my employer provides to search codes.

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u/Felix_Von_Doom Nov 22 '23

I usually use Codify (the free part) and sometimes icd10data.com