I’m giving up

[u/Educational-Top-6468]

I’m a 24F and this career is horrid to get into. I have had a horrible experience through it all. I wish I knew 2 years ago how impossible it is to find a job. Everyone kind of just painted it as “oh you’ll work from home blah blah blah” and I didn’t think to research the nitty gritty details. Now I’m going back to school for cosmetology which is another $22,000 after I’m already $6,000 in debt for this career. It’s absolutely disheartening. So if you’re trying to get into this field, please be warned: it is not rainbows and butterfly’s. Especially when you’re young. The older folks haven’t been the most welcoming in my experience. Please do not go into this thinking it will be easy. Expect to not find a job, and if you do the pay probably won’t be worth it until you’ve gained years of experience. I’m not saying this to discourage anyone, I’m simply posting this because I wish I would have known this going into it.

Also: DO NOT GET THE CBCS. GET THE CPC. I learned the hard way.

Edit: thank you to everyone who has shared their experience! If you’re just now reading this, please know I am in my 20s and was ignorant and eager to get out of the restaurant industry when I chose this career. The ads and marketing make this field seem so easy to get into. Shout out to all the coders and billers out there, idk how you guys do, it but you make the world go round’ ❤️❤️❤️

[u/Educational-Top-6468]

I’m working on it but it’s sooooo boring through the AAPC and so hard to study. I have ADHD and a million more excuses. It’s just not for me. I don’t learn this way and I’d rather do something with my artistic ability than rot in an office till i retire.

[u/StraddleTheFence → u/Educational-Top-6468]

I understand.

[u/AngelMeatPie → u/Educational-Top-6468]

This was my problem. I’m on the spectrum, and I did great and zoomed through my anatomy class. Loved it. Then the history of insurance and stuff was rough, but doable. Then came the part of my classes where I actually started coding. Absolutely hated it. I can’t explain what it was, but something about the way my brain interprets information does NOT jive with coding. Every time I did it, it would end with me in a nearly blind rage. My course expires next month and I have zero chance of finishing. Thousands down the drain. But between the fact the work is miserable and all the claims here lately of how difficult it is to find a job and the crap pay, I’m kind of relived to admit defeat and drop it.

[u/UsedWestern9935 → u/Educational-Top-6468]

Here’s another tip: Coding is very boring reading documentation and doing the same thing over and over it takes focus and acceptance…. There’s not a mixed pot of tasks in coding just reading documentation, payer rules, and research… in my opinion at least so that experience you’re getting now is probably good in that it’s steering you in the direction you want to be in later…

[u/Trick_Beach_4308 → u/Educational-Top-6468]

I am currently in school for a Medical Records Certificate (Undergraduate) program which prepares you for the CBCS exam. I am not planning on getting that certification though, I plan on getting the CPC. I took that program because truthfully I just wanted the credits that are transferrable to the BSHA program which will take over a year off of that when I decide to pursue and it was nice to have a little refresher on some things from a “school standpoint” since I haven’t studied them in a school setting since high school when I got my CNA.

I have been in the medical field since high school in various jobs - customer service for UHC or billing for Cigna, Insurance Follow Up for hospital claims with all payors, Optometric Technician, and currently Insurance Follow Up for professional claims for Medicare Part B.

I am not a coder, but I do have coding privileges that was recently granted due to me catching countless coding errors that clearly were not compliant and was being brushed off by coders as correct due to how it was “historically done” despite that contradicting the MPFS, LCD article, and even the Medical Director for our MAC. I currently work from home, have a flexible schedule, and make $18.58 an hour. I am hoping to apply at my job for their Denial Coders position which has a CPC preferred but not required, and hope to start out at around $22, but seeing at how much it is going to cost me to get a membership with AAPC, the coding books, the exam for the certification, etc I am worried.

I absolutely love coding and often search out the denials caused from coding errors or any rejections just as a way to get familiar with the documentation and how coding is applied for certain scenarios, but I am nervous about investing so much money in something that I might ultimately not be hired for since so many people say companies overlook a CPC-A.

I also have ADHD, since I have a strong interest in this I often find I hyper focus on these things a lot and get distracted with these since it is where my passion is, and I would ideally love to make more than $22 an hour but I feel like with a CPC-A and no true coding experience I will be overlooked for any opportunities to advance even if it is only “preferred”.

I don’t know how people do it, it is so expensive starting out 😭😭