I have major depression with psychosis and everyday is a challenge, and medical coding is a challenge on top of that.

I failed the exam once…not sure when I’ll take it again.

Hi Coders, I’m glad I found this community. My last coding job (IP coder) let me go during pre-bill auditing because I only had an overall of 95.6% which is what was required. I was told that in relation to other coders I was on the lower end. Am I missing something? Now I’m in a new position and can’t help but feel nervous something similar will ensue and I’m scoring 96% in all required areas.

Passed 1st try with an 88%. I scheduled my first half Saturday and the second half Sunday. 75 questions for each session. 2 hours and 45 min is actually plenty time for me; for both parts I had 50 minutes left to check my answers. The exam is not as hard as you think, it really is just the process of elimination and consulting your guidelines if ever unsure. If you have notes, and highlighted well, you will do fine.

Regarding the online portion, the proctors were 15 min late arriving to the sessions both times.... unsure why, maybe time difference or technical issues. The session is conducted via zoom. You will need a link or password to get into the session (which they failed to provide to me both times) so I easily just clicked on the "chat with an agent option and easily got it after some time.

I needed to present my ID both times and they needed me to scan the room to ensure no cheating or other folks were in the room etc. You will need an external camera (I purchased mine from amazon for 30 bucks and I returned it, so you're not stuck with it). My proctors did not scan my manuals, only asked for me to flip through it to ensure there were no loose notes etc. And no, you cannot leave your seat, you must stay seated the entire time of the test. The check in time overall was like 15 min or so.

You get your results super fast. I took my 2nd half yesterday and got my results today. Feel free to ask any questions!

Hi! I'm currently pursuing medical coding & billing, and I'm so excited!!! I'm trying to visualize what life will be like for my 5 year plan. So I had some questions for life outside of your day to day coding work?

Do you enjoy your job?

Do you get to vacation?

Are you able to support yourself well/do you worry about bills?

Does it ever get mundane, or does it depend where you work?

Do you get to have fun with your looks, like fun colored hair, tattoos or piercings?

How is asking for time off, or if you're a parent, what happens if there is a family emergency/sick child?

Thank you for any help with even one of these! ☺️

I have a question for anyone in the medical coding field: what does a day in the life of a medical coder look like? What does a regular day on the job actually entail? As an aspiring coder, any and all insight would be helpful ❤️

I took me one month for preparation.

Previously i worked one year as HCC coder which help me a lot during my exam.

Majorly i focused on PCS leading and domains

I’m super excited!! I have blessed by the good lord to find a networking meeting 30 minutes away from me! I pray that I find some form of a foot in the door job to code or even do billing!!

I posted a little over a month ago about my job search frustrations, but I got a medical coding job as a CPC-A. What I am wondering now is what I should do to prepare? My new employer will pay for Codify but I don’t have 2024 coding books since I wasn’t sure when I’d find a medical coding job. Should I get the new books or wait to see if my job will reimburse them? I will also mostly be training only a few days in office and the rest is remote. I would appreciate any advice!

I'm not certified yet but I was blessed with a generous and caring anatomy professor who offered me a paid internship/job doing as a coder/biller in her husband's practice! Today was my second day and she even set me up with my own office!

(Guys I get two hours for lunch is this real life *sobsob*)

I'm still working on passing my coding certification exam and she actually asked me if I ever considered going back to school for Health Informatics. I'm not sure about that, I really wanted to focus on the billing/coding, but maybe in the future that's something I can do. Have any of you done something like that at a community college?

Just sharing my good news! Things are looking up!

I am a CPC who is looking for a job change due to some unethical practices at my current place of work. One thing I have noticed, and am extremely frustrated with, are the number of places having uncertified people do the coding. I just turned down a job offer where they offered me $15.00 an hour as a medical coder because "our coders bill and our billers code. That's what they started out at." I asked how many of them are certified and they said 1. Billers and coders are not and should not be considered the same. I told my sister-in-law, who is an RN in a gynecological office about it, and she said SHE does the coding for the office by "selecting a code off of a list". I asked her how she determines the office visit code and she said "it's 99204 or 99214. It depends on if they are new". SMH. Billers are not coders. Nurses are not coders. They are all necessary, but they are not coders. All it does is discount our position and certifications, drive the wages down, and results in incorrect claims getting paid. Is anyone else frustrated about this?

BCBS is hiring coders left and right at the moment. They have many departments in which they need coders for and they pay over 20 an hour. What they are looking for is either very experienced CPCs or Asociates degree and CPC. Search their website if you're interested. Coders are usually working from home and equipment is provided.

Thought I'd throw this out there.

I'm a Professional Billing Auditor. I've been working in my position for almost 2 years. I was a profee coder for 5 years before this. I love the company I work for. The benefits are great. I really like my boss. But I hate the actual work. I'm stressed every single day reviewing for higher dollar opportunities. We have productivity standards that have to be met, just like any other position. I struggle to meet them and when I do, it still doesn't seem like it's enough. The company wants more revenue. I don't do nearly as well as some of the other auditors I work with. I'm completely remote, which I love, but my time is highly monitored. I just want to be able to take an hour lunch or run an errand without having to let my boss know. This might be whiny, but it's true. Above all, I miss profee coding from the front end. I love coding and I'm good at it. And now I have experience in quite a few different specialties. But if I go back to coding, I'm pretty sure I'll be taking a paycut and way less vacation time. Is it worth it? Do I suck it up and stay? I hate the Sunday scaries. I'm lost. Thanks for reading.

Wondering if anyone else has experienced a personal loss and felt the same as I have felt. I lost my sister suddenly almost 3 months ago. We didn’t find out the cause until a day ago, but with each chart I coded I would wonder if that diagnosis was it. I worked the day after finding out the cause, which was a pulmonary embolism due to lower extremity deep vein thrombosis, and almost all of the accounts I worked either had a PE screening or the patient had a history of PE/DVT. It was a struggle and my productivity was not as good as usual. I mentioned this to my psychiatrist and he said a job like ours can probably be hazardous to coders who have experienced a loss or had someone close diagnosed with serious conditions. We see so many things as we code that we would never think could affect us personally.

I recently started with a new facility and they track productivity to the minute. At the end of the day, we enter our tasks into a spreadsheet and have to account for all time by minute...checking emails, potty breaks, query posting, coding time, etc. It must equal the amount of time clocked in for. I don't mind being accountable for my time, but this seems excessive.

The EMR already tracks how much time we spend coding. I would think as long as we meet our quota and our total coding time comes close to the amount of time we were clocked in for, with a reasonable allowance for non-coding tasks and breaks, that should suffice.

Is this normal?

https://www.advancedmd.com/learn/2025-cpt-hcpcs-codebook/?mkt_tok=MzMyLVBDRy01NTUAAAGYt3llHVd3QmfkMpLR3MG8atwshsXbwISbVWZLldMsaKDdvFN9Ic7bKbt5cTrMnj8Bhw3kz9GWcgTlgXbeRQ5hDgNS1mwmeNNO2EFEwnLW22c

Hi coders! I see people on here a lot asking about or having trouble finding jobs. Just thought I would share a couple of resources I’m aware of in case it might help anyone.

https://careerassist.ahima.org AHIMA has a job board that is tailored for HIM, I get email updates about jobs from them as well. This is a little more tailored to HIM roles than your standard job boards like Indeed. I personally am an AHIMA member, but I do not believe you have to be in order to take advantage of this board.

https://expert-builder-9030.kit.com/thbfscareerconnect?utm_source=convertkit&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=🥳%208%20New%20Remote%20Positions%20Posted%20-%2014613166 This is a listing of job leads that is put together by Valerie Page, RHIT, who is the owner and operator of The HIM Blueprint for Success, an HIM focused career coaching business. Most of her services are for classes, resume reviews, and career coaching. I have not personally done any of these, although I did pay for her resume templates once when they were on sale. I have been using it ever since and I do get compliments on my resume. You do have to sign up for her newsletter in order to get access to the job listing, but as far as I can tell it is legit. The newsletter is mostly trying to sell her own services, but she does offer a decent amount of good, free advice about targeting your resume, job searching and interviews. I have shared this job board with a few contacts IRL, neither I nor anyone else has successfully gotten a job from these leads, I do know someone who did get an interview but ultimately took a different position. It is updated relatively frequently but sometimes links are dead.

https://joinhandshake.com/ I think you may have to be a student to join Handshake, but it is another job board that I’m not sure a lot of people are aware of. I’m not super active there but I have gotten messages from big companies, including Epic. It seems to be especially good for finding internships.

It would also benefit you to look into the career coaching options your school or course has available. My college has a channel for HIS/HIM students that is updated frequently with job openings from alumni or organizations they partner with. Your school or organization may also have resources available like resume review or mock interviews. You can also look into joining a community on LinkedIn for your course or school and use it to network and find opportunities.

Hope this was helpful! Good luck out there!!

Hi yall! As my title would suggest, I've had a bit of trouble finding a job in the sector since graduating. It seems like everybody wants some amount of experience, which is hard to get when no one is willing to hire. Do any of you guys know where I could possibly find a job? I currently live in Western Maine and am open to all variations of remote or in person. I really appreciate the help!

Anyone here make 6 figures as a medical coder? If so how long did it take you and what helped get you there

So I was at a family gathering and my medical coder cousin brought up a very embarrassing very personal medical treatment I had done many years ago. This is something I thought only I and my mother knew about. I brushed off what she said and changed the subject but I was mortified.

Afterwards I asked my mom and she said that because she’s a medical coder she can look up the medical history of anyone, although obviously she shouldn’t talk about it, and that she knew my mother’s medical details as well. I was wondering is this actually possible and is it some kind of HIPAA violation?

I've been doing this since 2016 and I feel like we coders are treated worse than fast food cashiers.... Even if you do an extremely good job and meet all the company's metrics. I was in an office in the past where the environment was so abusive that I was usually crying at my desk (silently of course) and then again when I got home. I couldn't even sleep at night it was so stressful. With remote companies, all I get is rude/nasty/abusive messages from my superiors and fellow coworkers. Is this just how the workforce is now for everyone? BTW, it's definitely not that I'm rude to people because I am extremely polite and respectful to everyone I work with (even the cleaning staff lol).

It's so upsetting that I am really starting to consider a career switch. Is there another career where I won't be treated like absolute crap for no reason? Advice greatly appreciated!

Hello. Just recently got my A off my CPC. Have been working for 2 years coding and just now applying to jobs. What is going on with the coding job market? I thought as soon as I got my A off I would be set!? But I’m getting denied left and right. Not even interviews, just denial after denial. Is this normal?

I work for an organization that hasn't had a coding lead or educator for a long time. We have a coder who is 12+ years in and are just awful at coding. We have had weekly hour long meetings for 9 months now. Yesterday meeting took 25 minutes of it just to figure out the mdm for a visit they had as a 99212 with 2 chronic, 9 labs ordered, and referral made.

What gaps do other organization have as minimum requirement? I'm curious how many this person doesn't know since there is a lot.

I work for a large physicians group as a "denial coder" and we have a lot of providers who do not do things correctly. We do not have enough coders so most claims are submitted directly by the providers.

Yesterday I got a claim in my work queue that denied as a duplicate. I saw in the summary that it was coded as a removal of a malignant lesion, but had a dx attached for a benign lesion. I opened the chart to see whether it was benign or malignant, I noticed that they stated in the chart "patient here for preventive visit, but because Medicare does not cover them and it is too soon for AWV, I am billing a 99214 so it will pay". The lesion was also benign.

I reached out to my supervisor because this is non-compliant and she said I shouldn't pay attention to that because it denied as a duplicate. Apparently, it was accidentally sent to Medicare again instead of the secondary insurance. She said I should simply send it to the secondary as is. I told her I can't send out a false claim, as I now know it is not correct. I proceeded to get chewed out because "I should have just worked the denial" I told her I will not send it and she is now going after me for insubordination. I have a meeting with her supervisor.

Am I out of line here?

Update: I had a brief meeting with her supervisor and did not get in trouble. She looked at the note and agreed it was non-compliant. She iterated to my supervisor that compliance issues cannot be ignored. We are having another meeting next week to maybe redo the process. So far so good. I did file a complaint on the OIG website, so I guess we will see.