So you've got your CPC-A and your looking for work...good luck. You probably should have taken the AHIMA CCS test. That would have maybe gotten you into a hospital setting where the wages are better and you could get health care coverage. Now with your CPC-A you're probably looking at a doctor's office, low hourly pay and no health coverage. I was just discharged from my hospital coding job for not having a CCS. I do have the CPC-A and for what it's worth, which isn't much, graduated magna cum laude. Big deal! Yup, lost my job making $18.32 per hour and health benefits, all because I didn't have an AHIMA CCS credential. All these kids go to a college that has an HIM program accredited by AHIMA. So in order to sit for the RHIT credential, you have to have a 2 year associate degree. RHIA requires a 4 year BS degree. First day of class and the instructor tells all these students that when they graduate they'll be managers! They hear that and they all look like deer staring into the headlights of a car! So they go 2 years and accrue what, $30K in student loans??? The hospital I worked in, 98% of the coders had a RHIT credential. There was only one supervisor who did have an RHIA. It was a real sweatshop atmosphere right out of the 1930's. Your quota was 10 inpatient charts per hour. Mandatory over-time could be imposed at any time, and weekends also, both days.
The biggest thing you'll run into is how great it is you have your CPC-A, now the employer wants 2 years experience! That was the exact question brought up at my last AAPC meeting is how do I get a job if everyone wants 2 years experience? And the answer was .....offer to work for free hoping they'll hire you after a year or so!!! Right!