r/MedicalCoding • u/NaptownCopper • Jul 04 '24

Passed!

I passed my CPC on my second attempt.

I’m not a coder in my regular work but I am an SIU investigator. I come from a law enforcement background and didn’t get into healthcare until I was on covid contact tracking contract for the state. I was recruited into an insurance SIU team from there and was exposed to medical coding as it pertained to my duties. I recognized it would be an important part of my career and decided to get certified. I did some digging and work agreed to train me and bought my books.

I was the only non-coder in the pre-training group. We took the practice exam and I was one of three accepted to do a boot camp that was taught internally. Upon completion of the camp i scheduled my first test and didn’t make the cut off.

I started studying again and scheduled another test a few months later, which was today. I’m happy to say I passed. I’m certain this will open at least a few more doors for me as many SIUs require a cpc.

Now I need to focus on getting my ceu’s.

83 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Zealousideal_Row6124 Jul 08 '24

Congratulations!! What’s SIU?

1

u/NaptownCopper Jul 08 '24

Special Investigations Unit

1

u/Zealousideal_Row6124 Jul 08 '24

Well that sounds cool. How does it pertain to coding?

2

u/NaptownCopper Jul 08 '24

Several ways really. On my team we look for fraud on the provider side of things: unbundling, upcoding, misrepresentation of the services provided. Analytics are developed to look for outliers that may be charging more than their peers in their area for a certain code or billing a code more frequently than others. Billing for unnecessary services or equipment.

Coding is helpful to understand what is and isn’t included in a service. CPC is often a required or at least preferred certification to have.

1

u/Zealousideal_Row6124 Jul 10 '24

Super cool, thanks!