Wiki CPC-H Need help on what to study

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Samanthakay

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Any advice on what to study for the CPC-H. Has anyone taken the CPC and CPC-H? Which one would be easier for someone with only hospital experince.Thanks for any help.
 
Ive taken both and if you mostly bill for facility it would be easier to take the cpc-h but if you bill more professional services the cpc would be easier... So my advice for taking the H is to make sure you understand all the modifiers and status codes
 
I'd take the CPC-H. That way you won't be tested on inpatient surgeries.

Make sure you know your books--you don't have to memorize them from cover to cover, but understand your guidelines, and know where each section is in the books and what information is provided there. Understand coding concepts....unbundling, modifier usage, add on codes, surgical guidelines, etc. Be very clear about ICD-9 code sequencing. Have a good handle on terminology and A&P.

I'd get the study guide and practice exams, if you want a good study experience. They were extremely helpful to me. If you don't reach over 80% first time on the practice exams, you are nowhere near ready to test, so take some more time before you sit for the real thing.

The biggest reason people don't pass is because they run out of time. And they run out of time because they are not confident in their overall knowledge. It's a tough test, but easily passable if you know your material.
 
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I took it last Saturday and failed. I completely ran out of time. Iam not very good at test taking. I took a 4 month class on CPC coding 7 years ago and have been coding outpatient clinicals and Ers for a small hospital for 6 years but with a Encoder. I was completely confused on what to study my co worker took it in 2010 and I used her study materials and it was completely different which I did not realize until the day before the test they took out vol 3. We argued for weeks about how she said it was an inpatient test which it was when she took it and I thought it was outpatient. I cannot find a lot of information on CPC-H just CPC. I need to practice which 150 questions.
 
There are no Inpatient charts to code on the CPC-H, it is solely Outpatient Hospital and Ambulatory Surgical Center coding. It is mostly surgical coding, guideline questions, and payment methodology.

I would read up on Medicare's outpatient payment methodology and remember that some HCPCS level II codes are used over CPT codes when it comes to Medicare patients (they do test this knowledge.)

Read the ICD-9-CM guidelines and understand them well, they want to know you know sequencing of coding and the little rules. Such as for outpatient services rule out Diagnosis are NOT coded, only confirmed ones are.

Knowing your modifiers and which ones are allowed for outpatient services is important, there is a condensed list on the front cover of the AMA professional CPT book, but it really is best to have the memorized.

One the questions about payment, guidelines, medical term, and anatomy it is best to be quick as possible so that you have more time on the surgical coding. They will have long winded surgical cases for you to read and abstract. Learning to identify key words is VERY important. Knowing alternative names for things is also important.

Read your CPT book, highlight or underline things that might help you. I cannot stress how important knowing your ICD-9-CM guidelines will help you breeze through some questions and really help you in real world coding, especially if you are trying to get in to inpatient coding.

Practice your surgical coding and know your guidelines and you will do fine.
 
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