# Need Help about ICD & Anatomy portion in CPC Exam



## NikhilCPC (Apr 25, 2011)

while solving the CPC Practice papers I am having trouble choosing the right option in Anatomy portion & ICD portion. In Anatomy i want to know is there any trick that i could get any clue regarding the right answer. which could resemble little bit with the correct option with using the three books we have in exam. Questions are coming like this where this part of body is based out. true or false questions. see Anatomy is huge portion no body may over come this entirely and they may ask question from anywhere. so tell me any way that i could do best in this regard & Second in ICD like in test question we have four option in one question. if we have two or more then two ICD given to choose the right one in each option so how should we go. Should we proceed towards directly intoTabular Series to confirm the right code, should we go to index first. Either choosing the right option by any other way to get the right one form each of them according to the time saving & time management is assigned for the each question. please give me any solution on that. your help would be really appreciated. any suggestions on that you may mail me out at. nikhil.jain608@gmail.com.


Thanks & Regards,
Nikhil Jain


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## btadlock1 (Apr 25, 2011)

nikhil.jain608@gmail.com said:


> while solving the CPC Practice papers I am having trouble choosing the right option in Anatomy portion & ICD portion. In Anatomy i want to know is there any trick that i could get any clue regarding the right answer. which could resemble little bit with the correct option with using the three books we have in exam. Questions are coming like this where this part of body is based out. true or false questions. see Anatomy is huge portion no body may over come this entirely and they may ask question from anywhere. so tell me any way that i could do best in this regard & Second in ICD like in test question we have four option in one question. if we have two or more then two ICD given to choose the right one in each option so how should we go. Should we proceed towards directly intoTabular Series to confirm the right code, should we go to index first. Either choosing the right option by any other way to get the right one form each of them according to the time saving & time management is assigned for the each question. please give me any solution on that. your help would be really appreciated. any suggestions on that you may mail me out at. nikhil.jain608@gmail.com.
> 
> 
> Thanks & Regards,
> Nikhil Jain



When I don't know an anatomy term, and I can't look it up (like during an exam), I look 2 places - first, I'll try to find something about it in the ICD-9 book - _anything_ at all that can give me an idea of where it's located, or what it is. My ICD-9 book (Ingenix) has little definitions and descriptions under many of the codes, so sometimes I can figure things out that way. 

The other way is to find the illustrations in the CPT book. This tends to only be helpful if you have an idea where the anatomical term should be located - as in, what body area/organ system it's from. Page xiv in the front of the CPT manual has lots of prefixes, suffixes and roots for medical terminology, as well as a few commonly used terms, and if you turn the page, there's a list of all of the anatomical illustrations in the book (oddly enough, there are no page numbers, so you just have to flip through to find them). Those tools are invaluable. The test questions are hard to gauge - they can literally be from any part of the body. If you have any anatomical terms in your study guide that made it into the glossary, I'd make it a point to jot those terms down in one of your code books - they're more likely to be on the test than any other terms. Also, if you see one that you're not familiar with in a question, write down its definition as well. 

For ICD-9, you always, _*ALWAYS*_ look up the code in the alphabetic index, then verify in the tabular. If you don't do both, you *WILL* get the wrong code. Many times, there are little instructions telling you exactly where to go, and which codes to use for which conditions. For the ICD-9 portion of the CPC exam, it seems like they have located every instance in the book that will trip you up if you don't refer to both sections, and the answers are meant to trick you if you're not doing it right. *I cannot stress this enough - do not try to skip any steps in the ICD-9 only portion of the exam.* Just look the code up the way you're supposed to. For the other sections of the test, which have both CPT and ICD-9 codes in the answers, you can probably just look up the codes in the tabular, if you're just eliminating an answer. (Most of those answers depend on the correct CPT selection, though, so you may not have to look up the ICD-9 codes at all). 

Just remember,* nearly all *of the answers are in your code books - you just have to know where to look. Tab your ICD-9, and get very familiar with the CPT book from cover to cover - know what's in there, and what pages to look in. I suggest reading over all of the guidelines in both books, if you've got time. 

One last trick - you'll have to look in your ICD-9 conventions for a few test questions (I guarantee it) - find the pages with the conventions and separate them from the rest of the pages - when you're holding only the pages with the conventions, take a highlighter, and color the edges of the pages (Just run it around the outside edges - I also colored the page corners on the first and last pages of mine). When you close the book, you'll see a brightly colored stripe where your guidelines are, so they're MUCH easier to find. Hope that helps! Good luck!


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## NikhilCPC (Apr 25, 2011)

Thank you very much and the last trick as you told me is for the searching guidelines in icd portion. is it.


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## btadlock1 (Apr 25, 2011)

nikhil.jain608@gmail.com said:


> Thank you very much and the last trick as you told me is for the searching guidelines in icd portion. is it.



Yes it is - the conventions are in the front of the book under the title "Official ICD-9-CM Guidelines for Coding and Reporting" Pay special attention to the differences between inpatient and outpatient coding (I'd highlight the section headings - one of the key differences is in differential or rule-out diagnoses - you can code them for inpatient, but not for outpatient). Also, read over the Chapter specific guidelines for Chapters 1, 3, and 7 - the more important parts of those chapters are HIV coding, Diabetes Coding, and HTN/Chronic kidney disease. You don't have to memorize them, just know them well enough to remember that the information is there, if you come across a question that pertains to those sections. (I can pretty much assure you that you'll encounter a question over _at least_ one of those areas).


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## Lynda Wetter (Apr 25, 2011)

on the topic of "rule out" coding for in patients. Is that stated in the ICD book? I too have Ingenix!
Thanks


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## btadlock1 (Apr 25, 2011)

newbee0515 said:


> on the topic of "rule out" coding for in patients. Is that stated in the ICD book? I too have Ingenix!
> Thanks



You can find info in Section II, H (Inpatient) (on page 27 of the 2011 Expert edition)
and Outpatient is in Section IV, I (next page over)

I just now noticed that the pages of my ICD-9 say "2010 ICD-9-CM" at the bottom - it threw me off! Weird...


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## NikhilCPC (Apr 25, 2011)

Hello Brandi

           I tried several question which are having multiple diagnosis code in each option (four option in one test question to select the right one) when i applied that approach that first index and then moves to tabular it took huge time to find out the right option. & particularly those questions in which each option is having only dx code. so that i searched through index first and then went through tabular so it took very less time. please give your advice on that.

Second ICD guidelines chapter wise is very good suggestion from you i am getting in to this. hope i will be getting good one. but i am very much confused and worry about cpt guidelines portion. like some questions are based out on guidelines. like i did three practice papers of justcoding and i came across more question from moderate sedation guidelines, Anesthesia, E & M. quit confused that what to with these guidelines of cpt because it cannot be memorized you know very well. Even now i dot have time to study over cpt guidelines because i have my exam on this coming Saturday. icd guidelines are not that much compare to cpt guidelines i will through it till tomorrow. but tell me the way how should i be prepare in remaining three to four days. i have still three practice papers left to crack out. i was behind three numbers to get the actual percentage in the first practice paper which i did yesterday i got 102/150, it was told to me that i need to perform at least 70% market including each section of the exam. means 105/150 would be the last past ratio. it some one goes down means 104/150 so will be out of the race.
Need to know one thing that there are three section and the total duration of the exam is 5 hours 40 minutes to complete the paper. so how much time must be devoted among section A,B,C. plz give your valuable advice on that. your help is really appreciated.


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## btadlock1 (Apr 25, 2011)

nikhil.jain608@gmail.com said:


> Hello Brandi
> 
> I tried several question which are having multiple diagnosis code in each option (four option in one test question to select the right one) when i applied that approach that first index and then moves to tabular it took huge time to find out the right option. & particularly those questions in which each option is having only dx code. so that i searched through index first and then went through tabular so it took very less time. please give your advice on that.
> 
> Second ICD guidelines chapter wise is very good suggestion from you i am getting in to this. hope i will be getting good one. but i am very much confused and worry about cpt guidelines portion. like some questions are based out on guidelines. like i did three practice papers of justcoding and i came across more question from moderate sedation guidelines, Anesthesia, E & M. quit confused that what to with these guidelines of cpt because it cannot be memorized you know very well. Even now i dot have time to study over cpt guidelines because i have my exam on this coming Saturday. icd guidelines are not that much compare to cpt guidelines i will through it till tomorrow. but tell me the way how should i be prepare in remaining three to four days. i have still three practice papers left to crack out. i was behind three numbers to get the actual percentage in the first practice paper which i did yesterday i got 102/150, it was told to me that i need to perform at least 70% market including each section of the exam. means 105/150 would be the last past ratio. it some one goes down means 104/150 so will be out of the race. plz give your valuable advice on that. your help is really appreciated.



The problem with a multiple choice timed test, is that the way that you find an answer is completely different from how you'd find it in the real world. 
Here's how I handle those questions with multiple codes: Go through all of the answers, and eliminate any that are obviously wrong, if possible. Out of the remaining answers, mark out the codes that are in every answer - there's no need to look those up; they're going to be correct. You should be left with only one or two codes that differ between the answers - look _those_ codes up. 

As for the CPT guidelines, you don't have to memorize them, just know what topics are covered, and where they're at. There are green pages at the beginning of a few sections (E/M, Anesthesia and Surgery) with guidelines, and then there are little green paragraphs all throughout the book. The green pages cover bundling, time reporting, etc., and the section that's the most useful is the E/M. The green paragraphs are the ones that'll catch you by surprise. To find those, I recommend looking up your code, then back tracking in the book until you reach the beginning of the section, which will have a large, bold, red title. (For example, CPT 21750, you'd go all the way back to the heading on the previous page that says "Neck (Soft Tissues) and Thorax". Skim over any guidelines in between to see if they're applicable to your code. (You shouldn't have to go back more than a page or two for most codes.) The guidelines you'll refer to most on the test will probably be from critical care, and from the cardiac event monitors in the medicine section. You should read those both and highlight important information/key terms. 

You're doing better than I was when I took the practice tests before becoming certified - I failed them miserably! Don't worry about how long it takes to get through the practice tests - just worry about understanding why the correct answer is right. Read the rationale (even write it down by the codes in the book, if you can). Make notes on everything that you miss, where you'll see the notes when you're looking up the codes in the future. It doesn't do much good to make notes you'll never see. Once you get the material down, the timing will follow. Remember that words such as: And, OR, Includes, Excludes, See, See also, Code first, Code also  - can make or break your code selection. Pay close attention, and look for those words. Good luck!


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## NikhilCPC (Apr 25, 2011)

Hello Brandi 

           Thanks for your assistance. Because of you i have over come several doubts of mine. i may have some other problem also till the exam performs. Which can be occurs during the studies. hope you wouldn't mind to solving my queries. I am really very thanking full to you. I want to confirm one thing about the exam number methodology it was told to me that I need to perform at least 70% market including each section of the exam. Means 105/150 would be the last past ratio. It some one goes down means 104/150 so will be out of the race. & there are three sections and the total duration of the exam is 5 hours 40 minutes to complete the paper. so how much time must be devoted among section A,B,C. plz give your valuable advice on that. Your help is really appreciated. Is that right or any other update would be there. plz give your valuable advice on that


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## btadlock1 (Apr 25, 2011)

nikhil.jain608@gmail.com said:


> Hello Brandi
> 
> Thanks for your assistance. Because of you i have over come several doubts of mine. i may have some other problem also till the exam performs. Which can be occurs during the studies. hope you wouldn't mind to solving my queries. I am really very thanking full to you. I want to confirm one thing about the exam number methodology it was told to me that I need to perform at least 70% market including each section of the exam. Means 105/150 would be the last past ratio. It some one goes down means 104/150 so will be out of the race. & there are three sections and the total duration of the exam is 5 hours 40 minutes to complete the paper. so how much time must be devoted among section A,B,C. plz give your valuable advice on that. Your help is really appreciated. Is that right or any other update would be there. plz give your valuable advice on that



You have approximately 2 1/2 minutes for each question - some take only seconds to answer, but others take several minutes. I prefer to go through the entire test, and answer the quick ones first, then go back and get the harder ones last, so I know how much time I can devote to each of them. If you do this, be sure to *_carefully_* mark your answer key as you go, and double check at the end to make sure you didn't skip any questions by accident. There's not really a Section A, B, or C - the practice tests come that way (with the questions all mixed up), but the real thing is divided up by subjects (ICD-9, CPT, Medical Terminology, Modifiers, etc.). I've now taken 3 exams - the first two, I finished in 5 hours, and the last one, just a little under 5 hours - and that's including reviewing all of my answers to make sure that I marked them down correctly. As you've mentioned, you can miss up to 45 questions and still pass. Also keep in mind that you get 1 free re-take, so try not to worry too much your first time around. I'm sure you'll do fine!


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## Mojo (Apr 25, 2011)

Hi Nikhiljain,

If you get a chance, read the article Prepare Yourself for the Certification Exam in the October 2010 edition of Coding Edge. I thought the review was helpful when I sat for a specialty exam.

Good luck!


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## rzeumault24 (Apr 26, 2011)

*Cpc exam*

do you suggest studyin with a partern to prepare for the exam.


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## rzeumault24 (Apr 26, 2011)

*Cpc info*

Thanks


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## btadlock1 (Apr 26, 2011)

rzeumault24 said:


> do you suggest studyin with a partern to prepare for the exam.



It's great to have a study-buddy! Especially if you don't have an instructor to guide you. If you need help understanding things, though, I'll do my best to help!


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## Cpeterson2010 (May 28, 2011)

You have given some very valuable information Brandi and anyone reading this I am sure is very appreciative such as myself!
Have a super weekend!

CP


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