What kind of company are you doing pre-employment testing for? I can tell you that if you are to be doing HCC coding, it's the ICD-9 codes that matter. For instance, where I work, I code, both, MRA and billables so I have to be proficient in ICD-9 and CPT. The bulk of the coding I do is MRA/HCC though. We are capitated with Humana medicare and Vista medicare, therefore the CPT isn't really the issue. The issue is the patient diagnosis because that's what we get paid on for those patients. However, for all the other insurances, we get paid on what we do (CPT) rather than the diagnoses that we are managing. Both have things in common and things that differ. HCC coding has a lot of "rules" that I don't necessarily agree with, but I think it differs depending on the insurance company you're dealing with.
I hope this makes some sense to you. Lol.
Personally, I feel that if you are going to hold a certification in coding, you should be able to code from ICD-9, CPT, and HCPCS II. You should be familiar with all facets of coding, as we had to study and show that we were able to handle all areas of coding when we took our certification test. So, definitely, don't let yourself get rusty in CPT coding if you get the job and CPT coding isn't an issue. Also, depending on what you're coding, 100 a day can be no biggie and 200 to 300 can be done easily too. If you're doing physician coding, where the patient came in because of a stubbed toe, obviously there's not going to be any reason that you should take more that 2 minutes tops to code the encounter. If you're coding in depth surgeries, this is not going to be the case. It will take longer just to read through the entire OP note.
