All About Medical Coding
2.What are the Eligibility for Medical Coder ?
The medical coding is for the person who has medical background and from Life-science graduates, medical / paramedical professionals. People from below qualification are usually in this field.
1.B.Pharma/ M.Pharma
2.Bsc Biology
3.Dentist
4.Phsyiotherapist
5.Bsc Nursing
6.Microbiology
Medycoding tips: But the person who has no Life science background and having good knowledge of anatomy ,phsyiology and medical terminology can also become medical coder because there are many company who hire person who is certified coder instead of having any educational background.
Certification exams do not require any specific education criteria. Graduation is enough.
1. What is Medical Coding?
Medical coding is the act of putting diagnosis (disease), procedures(treatement), medical services, and equipment into medical alphanumeric codes.
It means, medical coder can explain the whole procedure and disease by using few codes only and this helps insurance to get paid to provider.
Let us take an example -
The patient has cholelithiaisis means stone in the gall bladder so the treatment for this is removal of gall bladder. So gall bladder can be removed by open surgery or laparoscopy surgery and surgeon decide to go through the laparoscopy surgery. So when the medical coder read the document he will be able to put the medical code
Surgery code 47563: Laparoscopy, surgical; cholecystectomy with cholangiography
Disease code K80.21: Calculus of gallbladder without cholecystitis with obstruction.
The purpose of these code to get easily payable by insurance to the provider for the service.
3.What are the certification exam for medical coder ?
Only person should be graduate is enough for qualifying medical coder certification exam conducted by AAPC.
Note: There are many certification exam based on speciality, some certification exam required minimum 2 year of coding experience like Ahima-CCS certification exam or compared tougher to CPC.
For beginner, the important certification exam is conducted by AAPC is CPC (Certified professional Coder).
Other coding exam conducted by AAPC are
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CRC (Certified risk adjustment Coder)
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CPMA (Cerified professiona medical auditor)
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COC (Cetified Outpatient coder)
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CEMC(Certified Evaluation and managment coder)
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CIC (Certified Inpatient coder)
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COBGC (Certified obstetric Gynecology coder)
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COSC (Certified Othopaedic Surgery coder)
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CIRCC (Certified interventional Radiology cardiovascular coder)
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CGSC (Certified General surgery coder)
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CCC (Certified cardiology coder)
Note: This exams are for getting expertise in particular area of medical coding.
4.What are the expected salary for medical coder in India ?
The initial salary for medical coder in india vary based on the city and organistion for the certified coder and fresher the salary range is in between 15000K-25000K per month.
Once you gain experience then salary range after 1 year experience will be :
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Surgery Coder 25k-35k
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E&M Coder 20K-30k
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ED Coder 20k-30k
Note : The highest paying job in medical coding is for IPdrg coder and then Surgery Coder.
5.What is the total cost for CPC certifcation Exam
CPC International Testing Centre exam two attempts : 530 $
New Memebership : 205 $
Equalization Levy charge : 14.99 $
Total : 749.99$
Medycoding tips: Conversion charge extra will also be deducted based on the rate like INR to USD like for 62000₹ it will be deduct 2000₹ extra.
Note: For online international payment you have to activate online international transaction from the bank.
6.How long will it take to get certified and get a Job ?
Certification exam can be filled anytime , but for begineer it need to take training and you have to practice for certification exam. Beginner takes 2-3 month training to get certified.
7.How much the cost of training for CPC ?
There are many coaching institute in india , those are giving education for fresher for certification.
The average cost of training will varies from 15K-25K depend upon the location.
8.What are the option for Work from home ?
Initial during covid the company give work from home but now only few company are offering work from home facility but this is not for any fresher candidate.
9.Is only one certification exam is enough ?
Most of the company want any one certification either it is CPC or CCS, but for some company or client requirement they require ccs certification that's the reason employee need to give ccs instead of having CPC certification. But CCS is difficult for fresher too.