# What to do??



## spmurphree (Oct 19, 2010)

Ok I am a student at a local community college and I will finish this semester with my Health Insurance Specialist Certificate.  I am very excited by this and I absolutely LOVE this subject area and can't wait to utilize my knoweldge.

Ok so here is where my confusion comes in--I really don't know what to do now.  I mean do i need to take the CPC exam?? I really want to work in a hospital setting so should i take the CPC-H?? Also, I am very interested in specializing so do I do that now or get experience and then take the specialist exam?

help totally confussed as to what the next would be


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## Love Coding! (Oct 19, 2010)

spmurphree said:


> Ok I am a student at a local community college and I will finish this semester with my Health Insurance Specialist Certificate.  I am very excited by this and I absolutely LOVE this subject area and can't wait to utilize my knoweldge.
> 
> Ok so here is where my confusion comes in--I really don't know what to do now.  I mean do i need to take the CPC exam?? I really want to work in a hospital setting so should i take the CPC-H?? Also, I am very interested in specializing so do I do that now or get experience and then take the specialist exam?
> 
> help totally confussed as to what the next would be



Hello - 

The advice I would offer you would be if you are interested in hospital, I would look into the AHIMA area, this certified organization is more hospital based than AAPC.  That is what I found out when I got out of coding school.  I currently have my CPC and CPMA.  I utilized my coding contacts and resources to help go in the direction I wanted to go.  Now I am a Coding Compliance Coordinator for a extremly large nationally know nephrology practice.  

I know that CCS (Certified Coding Specialist) through AHIMA and CPC-H are very similar.  I would call both the AAPC and AHIMA let them know what your area of coding you are interested in and I am sure they will guide you to the right path.

Good Luck!

GeminiCoder74


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## mfanning (Oct 19, 2010)

If you want to be a hospital coder it seems as though certification through AHIMA is the preferred credential on the hospital side.  My understanding is that you actually start out obtaining a CCA (Certified Coding Associate) and then gather a few years (yes, years) experience and then take the CCS exam.  With a CCS you can code either in-patient or out-patient hosptial services. A CPC-H certification only allows you to code outpatient hosptial.  I suggest you search for coding jobs at various hospitals and see what type of credentials they are looking for.  

If you decide that you like physician coding then take your CPC-A exam and see where that leads you - maybe you end up in a specialist's office and decide you like it & want to pursue certification in that specialty.  If not, maybe you move on to another specialty, master it & make decisions from there.

Best of Luck!


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