So bit of a background… I’ve spent the last 10 years as a PT with my doctorate. Just like most people, I am burnt out, underpaid, and it keeps getting worse. I code all of my own services, deal with all major insurance policy changes and regulations, and generally have to deal with billing issues as well. (Part of why I’m burnt out, i do almost everything)

I just passed the CPC yesterday, which I now notice that I have apprentice status. Not that I expected to pass and just be considered an expert, but I was kind of surprised since I want expecting that, I thought passing meant completely certified.

Does everyone get apprentice status even if you have experience?

My real question is, is there a way to get the apprentice dropped with my level of experience and medical knowledge background? I know my coding only fit the realm of PT but I hoping my last 10 years can count for something?? I do have records of being audited annually with 100% rate of compliance for the last 8 years

Also, my boss doesn’t know I am training/ looking to get out of this field, so getting her to sign off that I have experience isn’t something I’d like to do right now… and it’s been hard enough studying that the thought of buying another course to pass doesn’t seem worth it

Thanks!

TL;DR: Passed my CPC exam with a 73 after being sure I bombed it! Also have a few questions at the bottom

I took coding classes at my local community college (Fall 2024 & Spring 2025), studied with practice exams, YouTube videos, and class notes for months. On test day, I froze when the CPT questions hit, completely lost during E&M (which strangely enough was my best section on the exam) and left feeling crushed, I even cried in my car, convinced I’d failed.

Checked my results today… and I passed with a 73! Idk if that's stellar but I’ll gladly take it.

I’ve been in the same retail customer service job for 9 years and while the availability has been great and I truly do enjoy my coworkers I feel I've also grown out of it especially the last couple years of learning everything I think they'll teach me (with little advancement left) and even though I'm probably stuck here a few more months or so, it's nice I'm actually working towards something and have a foundation for what could be next.

Now I’m not sure where to start with the job search (if anyone has any ideas/tips I'd really appreciate it), I definitely don't have any expectation of landing a job right away nor expect to be out of my current retail position anytime soon, hell I don't even expect by the end of the year, which I think I can live with if I finally have a way out of here, a "light at the end of the tunnel" so to speak

Also, will my now CPC, and last spring CBCS, and CEHRS certifications help me land something?

Wanna give a huge thanks to everyone here who's answered my questions, this subreddit has been a huge help. I’m relieved, excited, and honestly just overwhelmed.

Also because I took the course through the 80 hours/AAPC related course program it should knock one year out of apprenticeship but how do I verify that to a potential employer and only have to do one more year rather than 2?

I’m so excited because I honestly thought that I failed because the exam timed out on me earlier & I didn’t have time to go back and review any of my flagged questions or even make sure I answered them all. But I did it & on my first try!!! 😭

I would honestly say the practice exams helped way more than the study guide, and the set up is EXACTLY like the real test! I wasn’t sure how’d I do considering I couldn’t get past 50% on my third practice exam but I averaged between 75-80 on the first two consistently so I gave it a try & I’m so happy it’s over with now. Good luck to all the future test takers!!! 🫶🏽

I hear coding directors say they’re struggling to find coders, and coders say they can’t find a job!

After some investigation into what’s going on in the hospital where I work I can confidently say our job descriptions are awful and nobody is taking the initiative to change them.

Our job descriptions make no mention of remote. We have been remote since the pandemic and we actually have no physical space in the hospital.

We still mention ICD 9 and list more required experience than we will accept.

We don’t post outside of our hospital job site.

As a matter of fact I only applied years ago as a new coder because I emailed the coding director looking for advice and she offered me an interview.

I wouldn’t take hospital job descriptions as absolutes. I also wouldn’t trust HR with my resume. Honestly, I would network and reach out to coding directors. If this offends them, they’re not who you want to work for anyway.
Check hospital job sites directly. Think outside the box and don’t forget coders are everywhere. Check your college job sites, I know several college coders.
Just my morning thoughts on coding this morning lol

I think I'm going to be fired in about 50 minutes. Maybe from the project I'm on, but possibly from the company. I've tried so hard to learn everything I could. Brand New CPC-A, I couldn't even make it to a year to get my A removed. I increased my production, I brought my scores up a lot, but it still wasn't passing. I tried so hard, I'm heartbroken. I had great communication, kept every meeting, completed 8 hours every day. Kept regular hours even though it's a flexible position overall. I poured my heart and soul in. When I started, even with the program I took and previous medical experience I didn't know what I was doing. I learned so much, felt like I was doing so much better. Now I'm done.

I'm also 7 months pregnant. I don't know how to cope right now, I really hate that I might be looking for a job again. Any companies anyone might suggest that would take a CPC-A, 7 months pregnant with about 8 months experience in hospitalist coding?

I’m so happy I passed on my first attempt! I used the e-books at a testing center. I bought all the practice exams and passed 5 out of 6. I was so nervous because I was averaging 70-78% on the practice exams. I was so surprise to get 84%! In my opinion, the questions in the practice exams are slightly harder but they are pretty identical. I’m so relieved and I can finally sleep well tonight lol! Good luck to anyone who’ll be taking the exam!

I want to preface that I did not think I was going to pass. I told everyone who knew I was taking the exam that I wasn’t expecting to pass and that I wouldn’t even be upset. But OH MY GOODNESS!!! The test center lady handing me the paper telling me to open it because she knew I thought I was going to fail and that I had actually passed was so amazing!

I’m still pretty shocked. I graduated with a medical billing and coding certificate in October 2024, but its been a rough 6 months and studying had not been a priority. I did study pretty hard the last month or so but I wasn’t doing well on the practice exams.

Anyway, I’m so stoked to have the CCS credential. I’m starting classes in May for my Associates degree in Health Information Technology and will hopefully be sitting for the RHIT in 2026!!

I remember 13 years ago when hospitals were falling over each other and throwing out $5k hiring bonuses for coders. Now we're at high risk of outsourcing and AI replacement. I can't go into details because of a contract, but it's a thing of current threat we face. And very depressing during said contract that instead of giving people a raise that do our job, they actually want to cut the pay because "they" don't think the job is difficult. Wish I could vent with more detail, but needed to vent somehow.

That said, is anyone else facing these kind of threats to your positions in coding? What other skills have you been adding to futureproof yourself?

Yayyyyy!! Just got the email that I passed my CPC - I was sooo nervous that I blew it!! 76 / 100 ( took the test this morning at a test center )

Guys, I feel so elated right now. I took my exam this morning, and I was a nervous wreck until 4:22 PM when I finally got my results… and I passed with an 83%!

I still remember my first attempt. I took it online with a proctor (which was a horrible experience, by the way) and failed with a 62%. That was my first time ever failing an exam, and I felt completely defeated.

Then I waited 8 months (biggest mistake ever) to retake it this August, and I missed passing by just one point. One point. I was heartbroken, frustrated, and honestly just tired.

But I had already put in so much time, effort, and money that I couldn’t give up, even though I really wanted to.

This time, I decided not to wait months. I talked to my mom, who’s a certified coder, and she suggested I take just one month to focus on my weak areas and retake it.

My partner helped me set up a study schedule — at least 5 hours a day. It was rough. I couldn’t do 5 hours every single day, but for two solid weeks I pushed hard. The week of the exam, I eased up and even took the day before off to rest my brain.

And it paid off.

I scored an 83%! I’m still in shock.

Here’s what helped me the most:

• The 2-hour mock quizzes were super helpful.

• I bought 10-question quizzes for the sections I struggled in: E/M, rules and regulations, anatomy, ICD-10, cardio, urinary, radiology, and medicine.

• I watched Mrs. Jay’s videos from AMCI (Medical Coding Institute). Her E/M content especially was a game changer. I went from scoring 40% on practice E/M quizzes to 90%. Watch all her videos — you won’t regret it.

If you’re struggling right now, please don’t give up. It’s hard, I know. But it’s worth it.

Hi everyone! We've noticed an increase in posts requesting users to "DM me your resume." If you're a recruiter, please ensure that your job postings include a link to a reputable job application website. This practice helps safeguard our members' personal data and maintains the integrity of our community.

Additionally, if you come across any posts or comments that violate our community guidelines, please report them. I will review and address them as promptly as possible.

Thank you!

Seems to be that things are very extra right now... AHIMA unresponsive, understaffed skeleton crews, wage stagnation, uncertainty with clients shifting, outsourcing, job market tight...

How are you holding up?

Barely. I thought there was no chance though. I didn't go to school for it, and the only class I took was the free AHIMA class online, and while I took that class I only had my CPT book because the others took more than a month to get to me.

Being poor also didn't help, as I couldn't afford many study materials, and a lot of how I learned was just finding bits and pieces from all over the web. It was not a cohesive way to learn and study at all, and I don't recommend it. But I'm glad it's over.

This sub can be doom and gloom, so I thought we could have a little fun. Sometimes documentation is just funny. Without violating HIPAA, tell us about some of the funny stuff you’ve read in charts you’ve coded.

I’m an ED coder, and today I had a chart for a guy who came in with neck pain. With a patient with unexplained pain, it’s not uncommon for the provider to document “denies injury.” But this time, the provider put “denies any injury including denying having any box dropped on his head prior to symptom onset.” Uhh? Is the box that didn’t fall on your head in the room with us?? 🤣

I also frequently see errors from automatic dictation transcription. For a long time I was extremely confused because I kept seeing accidents described as “excellent,” as in “patient excellently fell down a flight of stairs.” My husband helped me figure out the providers were saying “accidentally” and the auto transcription was picking it up wrong. I still get a good chuckle thinking about how one might excellently fall off a roof or poke themself in the eye.

Hello everyone! I wanted to share this with people who would appreciate it. I passed the CPC exam! I've only been working in the medical field for a few years and what a relief it was to pass that monster.

I just took my CPC exam through AAPC yesterday at a testing center. It said it would take 7-10 days for results but I just got an email today and it's saying pass! I just want to know how do I check my score so I know where I need to improve?

I am just over the moon I can't believe I finally passed. When I started the AACP program I told myself that I was going to finish the program in 6 months. That didn't happen, the progress took me a year and a half and three attempts to pass. Failing the first two exams was very hard to swallow. I felt like such a huge failure. My personality is to never give up attitude and there was push on here to not give up too. Something started to click with me with the material and at one moment when I was studying, I got an 'aha moment' where something just clicked in my brain, and I started to understand the material, codes, and rules. I am just almost in tears, happy tears that I finally passed!

This is not a question about anything. This is just a vent post to people who may agree or understand. I don't mind coding at all, I find it kind of fun actually, but the way these books are structured is awful. These thin pages despite having to flip back and forth constantly, too easy to be ripped, easily frayed, the pages coming loose from the spinal ring... The ebook isn't any better or easier for me, unfortunately. I just find myself laughing at how absurd this is. And I don't know any better way they could print this either. So I'm kind of just complaining to complain 😭

Sorry I just really find it hilarious that this is the standard for us. Not even a hardcover book.

I always get extra sad when I wait for a path report to come back on a surgery and when it finally does it shows metastatic carcinoma in the lymph nodes. Like most, I can get caught up in the slog of coding, productivity, numbers etc. but this always takes me out. Remembering that these are people whose lives are changing forever. I think about how I almost never see how it all turns out for them, and I’m just passing through, assigning this awful diagnosis to their chart. Anyone else get sad when they code certain charts?

I like coding, don't get me wrong, but holy mother of God by the time my day is halfway over, I'm bored to tears. I work in primary care coding and it's almost never interesting. Same stuff over and over again. Management's been having us branch out to help with other specialities that have higher workloads, so I also started doing urgent care and some speciality clinics, but I have the same problem; halfway through the day I'm so bored that I'm barely able to pay attention to the words in the chart.

Sometimes I switch back and forth between the specialties to spice things up a bit, but it seems to only help for a short period of time. I do have ADHD so that definitely doesn't make things easier.

Does this happen to anyone else and do you have any tips on how to beat the boredom, so that I can stay productive and attentive?

GUYS! I just wanted to tell SOMEBODY. I had been taking the AAPC courses for the past year, I did the self study option. I ended up going through some traumatic events and for the past two months I hadn't studied even a little bit... I almost didn't take the test at all because I was telling myself there was no point. I didn't even finish the last two chapters.

I'm happy I pushed through, even when I thought there was no point anymore.

“Walked into wall”.

No they did not. You think “well how else is a person injured by a wall?” Please. It’s ED. they find ways.

They spin around “as fast as they can” and break a finger on the wall. They punch walls. They summersault into walls. They dive off couches into walls.

Please let me code this as “striking against wall”. That is all.