If I were you I’d take a practice exam like in this book and if you get an 85% or higher then you are ready to take the real thing.
CPC® Coding Exam Review 2012: The Certification Step, 1e

Either way I would get the review videos if I were you. They give you lots of tips on how to pass the CPC® exam in addition to reviewing key concepts you will be tested on.
Review Blitz Videos

Best wishes to you!

Laureen Jandroep, CPC®
Sr. Instructor, CodingCertification.Org

( Enclosed is the article)

Letter from the Chairman and CEO (Jan 2012)

Elimination of “A” Designation

The Apprentice designation is not needed anymore.

The National Advisory Board (NAB) has recommended, and the AAPC leadership team has discussed and agreed, that the Certified Professional Coder-Apprentice (CPC®-A®) credential has outlived its usefulness. The objective of the apprentice (A) designation was to show others—primarily prospective employers—an individual had passed the CPC®® exam, but did not yet have one or two years of on-the-job experience. Instead, it was too often preventing most CPC®-As® from getting interviews for potential jobs and hurting their prospects.

We believe the résumé indicating the experience level of an individual should speak for itself. Whether the individual has great aptitude, a terrific work ethic, good people skills, or any other desirable attribute is often never discovered because an interview was unable to be obtained. While we still believe experience is needed to become a good coder, we think it should be the employer’s decision who to hire.

Accordingly, AAPC is accepting comments through Jan. 31, 2012 on the following proposal:

Effective July 1, 2012, the CPC®-A® credential will no longer be granted. All current CPC®-As® would have their “A” removed by doing one of the following:
Getting at least one year of on-the-job experience no later than Dec. 31, 2013 (helpful to those with a job and currently working towards that end), or
Successfully passing a clinical exam consisting of coding 20 operative/office notes
Thus, no current CPC®-A® would be “grandfathered” into the CPC®® credential.
Those taking the CPC®® exam after July 1, 2012 will have two ways to get their CPC®® credential.
They can have one year of coding experience prior to taking the CPC®® exam (proof given at time of exam application), and then pass the CPC®® exam, or
They can pass both the current CPC®® exam and clinical exam by successfully coding 20 operative/office notes. On-the-job experience after taking the CPC®® exam will not be required.
It does not matter in which order the two exams are taken; if lacking prior experience, both are required to become a CPC®®.
The pass rate for the CPC®® exam will stay the same and a 90 percent pass rate on the clinical exam will be required. The 90 percent will be determined by correctly coding 18 of the 20 notes (and most will require multiple codes). The clinical exam will not be multiple choice; it will be free form and hand graded.
The clinical exam will include a sampling of office visits, surgical notes, evaluation and management (E/M) coding, ancillary services, modifier usage, and diagnosis coding.
The clinical exam would be taken at any AAPC proctored exam site. The same five hours and 40 minutes time restriction and code books will be allowed into this exam. If additional resources beyond code books are needed to properly code the notes, that information will be provided as part of the exam.
Both exams will be paid for at the same time and the cost for both exams will increase by $35. Applicants may still take each exam twice to pass it. If the examinee has one year experience, then he or she would pay only the CPC®® exam price. If one exam is passed after two attempts, but not the other, then the fee for the exam not passed would be paid to re-take it.
Of course, current CPC®s® are not affected by this change. As stated above, we would appreciate comments to this important change to our credentialing program through Jan. 31, 2012. You may go to www.aapc.com/cpc-acomment to submit your comment. From those comments we will either proceed ahead, make modifications that strengthen the change, or slow down the change due to legitimate concerns that AAPC has not properly considered.

Hi Alicia,

First of all please don’t panic. Changes always happen in the professions so you might as well get used to it . Per the letter from Reed in the January AAPC magazine this is a proposal – not a final decision – that was open for comment until yesterday. The final decision will be announced soon I’m sure.

The gist is if you have one year’s experience you take the regular CPC® Exam as it is known today and earn the CPC® credential if you pass.

If you don’t have the one years experience then you will need to take an additional “practical” exam.

If you are already a CPC®-A you will need to submit proof of one years experience or take the new “practical exam”

The “A” has caused a lot of pain for new coders and I for one think this proposal is a good change. I especially respect the AAPC for asking for comments before rendering a final decision.

As far as CodingCertification.Org creating a prep for the new practical exam we have something in the works. We had already been planning this “advanced” coding course before this announcement. And fortunately it will be a perfect prep for this new “practical” exam.

I hope that helps. If you (or anyone reading this) has any questions please comment below and I’ll do my best to answer or find someone that knows the answer.

Happy Coding!

1. Spastic colon – The first word can often be used to describe someone who is scatterbrained. But did you know that it also has medical implications? When a colon is spastic, it can be an umbrella term to describe everything from pain, constipation, diarrhea, and more.
2. Cardiac tamponade – The first word refers to the heart and the second to a feminine hygiene product. The entire term means a condition in which there is a buildup of blood or other fluid in the heart.
3. Cul-de-sac – In regular speak, it is where a street dead ends and there are a row of houses there. In medical speak, it is slang for the g-spot.
4. Frog leg – It isn’t a weird condition that can twist up someone’s legs. It is actually the term used when an x-ray or other image is taken of a leg from the lateral, or side, angle. Because the leg is often turned out, it is referred to as a frog leg.
5. Jail fever – You don’t have to be in corrections or have a high temperature to have this. It refers to an infection of bacteria that is spread by either or both lice and fleas.
6. Vally fever – It may sound like the latest prime-time soap, but it also refers to an infection. This one is contracted by breathing a certain fungus that grows in the dessert.
7. ICD-9 Code E845 – If you think there’s not a medical code for everything, check out this one. It is actually the code for someone who is hurt in an accident involving a spacecraft. It isn’t used commonly but has been thought to have been used more frequently back in the 60′s.

Casey Roberts is a student and also writes for Radiology Assistant which helps students find the right radiology degree.

Hello LAUREEN,

THANK you very much for your time on the phone yesterday.

Right now i need to make up time due to the wrong direction of the correspondence school.

I am cutting my ties with them.I want to get on track with the correct materials right away.

I would like your choice of textbooks, ICD9, HCPCS, CPT, ANATOMY, MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY that i can purchase from you to coincide with your blitz videos purchase for the CPC® exam. Is it a good idea to purchase ANATOMY AND MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY used from AMAZON.COM since anatomy of the body doesnt change every year?

Anyway, i will get all the materials from you so i know everything is correct for the CPC® certification exam.

Please email me all the information as soon as you are able.

Thanks,
DC

For your CPT manual I HIGHLY recommend the professional version (vs. the standard version) because it has more bells and whistles that you will actually use on the board exam. Here is a link to the one on Amazon.

For ICD you mentioned you were going to possibly be doing some inpatient coding training after getting your CPC®, since that is the case I’d recommend you get the Version that has volumes 1,2 & 3. Volume 3 is used by inpatient hospital coders to code procedures instead of CPT. Having the extra volume won’t hurt you if you’re just doing physician based – you just won’t use it. Here is the link for the version I use currently:

For HCPCS you don’t need anything too fancy

BEST VALUE
For a combo package of the above three manuals here is the link (currently selling for $279.11)

Now as far as a good medical terminology and anatomy book you can go used but I’ve just reviewed a new book titled “Medical Terminology & Anatomy for ICD-10 Coding”. It is the only book I know of that is geared towards coders. We like it so much we are going to be offering a course using it as the main text starting March 1st, 2012. Here is the link on Amazon:

Thanks for this tip goes to Brandi B. who says she rents her books and manuals to take the exam as cheaply as possible. She recommends:

www.chegg.com and
www.bookrenter.com/

I tried searching on “medical coding” and found lots of books I recommend all the time. Check it out! Thanks Brandi!

Tips to speed up flipping to codes faster in the manual to save time on the CPC® exam?

Well for the ICD Manual, I’ll start with that. One of the frustrating things for me is I don’t think there’s any version of a manual out there that has the true Table of Contents. And most versions are volumes 1 and 2 and one spiral bound book. And if you’re into Inpatient Hospital Coding, you have 3 volumes in it and it’s very hard when you’re brand new at using it to figure out you know, where to even start.

So what I recommend to my students is that at the top of the manual, not on the sides, that they get those hard tabs and put them where all the main sections of their manual are. So obviously, where each volume starts when you have volumes 1 through 3.

For the Index to Diseases, there’s 3 main sections. A lot of people don’t even know that. You’ve got the Index to Diseases. You’ve got the Index to External Causes, the E Code at the end and in the middle, you’ve got a table for like Poisoning Codes and drugs and things like that.

So I would tab those 3 things. Some people will tab the Neoplasm table and the Hypertension table. You could do that but they’re in alphabetical order. And then as far as the tabular part of ICD, I wouldn’t bother doing too much tabbing there because you’re going to be looking up the answers in the book. And what you have to get good at and this is the same as CPT is just like a dictionary is look in the upper corners and I did make a copy of my CPT. But before I go on to that, don’t put tabs in the sides. It’ll slow you down.

The only thing that in the Tabular that I would tab is where your V codes start and your E codes because sometimes, you want to get to them you know, quicker. They are at the you know, end of the 17th Chapter there. But I find that I like to get to the guidelines to the V codes to read them and then that way it’s right there, V codes that I just flipped there.

One last thing that I like to tab and each year when I get my ICD manual is I like the condensed view of the Tabular section. It’s this close to getting to the table of contents in ICD that you can get and that is Appendix E in your Volume 1 of the Tabular. And it does not go to 4th and 5th digits level. It’s down to the category level. That’s 3 digits. And because ICD is a classification system, your codes have to sit in that category. So it gives you a nice overview.

Alright, so as far as CPT and ICD you know, when you’re flipping and you’re in the tabular… let me get to that point… I just picked these sample surgery pages. Okay so you want to look up. So on this left facing page, if you see the code range here, just like in the dictionary and I am guilty of this. I tend to go up and down, up and down and then it wastes your time. If you can really train yourself to look to see if your code is within this range or not and if it’s not, flip to the next page and keep going. Use these upper corners to help speed up your flipping to the book.

Another tip that I do especially for those taking the board exam, maybe not so much for everyday coding, because you’re going to the answers on the board exam, if you’re using my suggestion for op reports and surgery questions, don’t read the scenario until you look up the answers. If you can train yourself to do that and you take practice exams, you will see how much time that will save you.

So leg and ankle is this whole page. Now because I’ve just turned to this page because maybe my answer is 27814, I don’t know where I am. I have to start reading through it. If I look up, “Oh, leg and ankle.” Because actually, this category started a page or two before this one but I have to flip back to see what anatomical area I’m even in. I mean, I know it’s musculoskeletal but this tells me leg and ankle.

And then on the facing page, it says foot and toe. Now that, I grasp from here but I’m going to also have it on the following page because this red heading won’t be on the page. And I picked foot and toes because there are bones in the hands and bones in the feet that have the same name. And you can go to question where you have you know, the answer looks exactly the same. You’re like, “Wait a minute. What’s going on?” When you look up, it’s like, “Oh, this one’s at the foot, the other one’s at the hand. Now I know what to extract for in my blip or scenario or op report when I read it. I need to see if I’m dealing with a hand or a foot to begin with.” So that’s my suggestion for speeding up flipping to the codes faster.

Okay so what I did is I went out and I just Googled sample op reports. I’ve had a lot of feedback after these webinars and quite a few of you commented how you really liked me showing how I look up things and figure things out. So I’m going to try and be conscious of that more and share with you how I found things so you could kind of be your own little detective here. I mean, ask my family. Anytime they have a question, I go, “Google it.” And my niece who’s 14, she visits me. She’ll ask me something, I’ll say, “Google it.” And I got her a smartphone but she… I know she has the ability to do it. She’s like, “That’s how I want to raise my kids. I’m just going to tell them to Google it.”

But here, I found a pdf example of an op report so there’s tons of them out there and you can use them to you know, practice coding. Obviously, you don’t have coding answers but I say that in this first one, I found actually did.

Okay, great. This is just right out there on Google. I just pulled it up. It’s designed to help transcriptionist understand how to layout op reports and how to format them and things like them. So this is typically what you would see in an op report you know, the patient’s name, all the identifiers, date, etcetera. For coders, these are the 3 lines that are really what we want to can on initially. So from a procedure standpoint, you jump right to the procedure line, bilateral, upper lid blepharoplasty. They actually spelled it and you will not find this on the exam of course so they give you the suggested CPT code. But basically, this is what you start with. And there’s all of this long, long, long op report. And yes, you should read it but always start with the procedure. Look up the code or codes and you’ll probably find several and you want to look at the difference you know, between those codes and in this case, it said bilateral. But if it didn’t say bilateral and it just said blepharoplasty and there’s several codes for upper lid, lower lid, you would have to go abstract that information from the body of the report. But start with the code to see what information you need to take the correct code.

And this is a great question because for those that haven’t taken the board exam yet, that’s how you really should attack surgery questions is you want to look the answers first. Don’t read the whole op report. You don’t have time or just not have enough time you know, there’s 5 hours and 40 minutes for 150 questions. You can’t read the op report then go look up the code and then end up reading the op report again. You need to know the differences between the answers you know what to pull out from the report. Are you looking for unilateral versus bilateral? Are you looking for upper versus lower? Okay so that’s how I attack an op report.

And then of course, you do the same with the diagnoses. What you’re coding for is a post-operative diagnosis. And you want to be careful sometimes because sometimes, the pre-operative diagnosis just sounds the same as the post-operative but you want a code whatever they say that the post-operative one is. In this case, it happens to be the same thing.

So that is how I would attack an op report.

80000 70%,
90000 70%,
Anatomy 50%,
Anesthesia 63%,
Coding Guidelines 67%,
ICD-9-CM 60%,
Medical Terminology 63%,
Practice Management 50%.

Any advice on what I should concentrate on first, or should I just go down the line and review each section?

Sure! Watch the video….

The answer: YES!

Watch the video…

In this webinar: among the questions asked:

* How does the CPC® exam compare to the AAPC Online Final Exam?

* If I am certified, can I find a job without experience?

* What is the best way to prepare for an assessment test a future employer might request us to take?

* Help understanding when to use modifiers on a regular office visit

* Is there a preferred way to code an E/M when the time is greater than 50 percent?

* When to use, or not use, Mod 26 on Radiology exam questions.

and much more.

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Also:

Here are the links mentioned in the webinar:

http://www.aapc.com/training/practice-exams.aspx#cpc” target=”_blank”>The three AAPC practice exams (50 questions each – $30 each)

Carol Buck’s CPC® Coding Exam Review

HCPRO free 20 questions

Do a google search on “CPC® exam practice questions”

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CCS exam prep

http://health-information.advanceweb.com/Editorial/Tools/CCSPrep.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Review-Guide-Examination-Examinations/dp/1111309167

http://www.amazon.com/Coding-Exam-Review-2011-Certification/dp/1437716555/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317942608&sr=8-2

http://www.codebusters.com/volume-1-inpatient-icd-9-cm-study-guide.html

http://www.codebusters.com/volume-2-outpatient-cpt-4-study-guide