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pwebbabshire@cox.net

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I am thinking about taking the COSC exam and would welcome some information on it. I have my CPC, but before I purchase the study guide I would like to know if anyone would be willing to answer some questions I have.
I am really interested in the test if it is specific to ortho. not general surgery questions. Also I know it has an E/M section, would that be inpatient or outpatient? If anyone is willing to tell me if their experience was a good one or not.
Thanks for any input.
Pamela
 
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I have taken the COSC but not the CPC (which i am interested in taking). While it was centered on ortho there were general questions also and yes quite a bit of spine.

Good Luck!
 
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So I see there are a bit of Spinal questions for the COSC. Is that like surgery on the spine or is it more injections, like pain management?
Thanks,
Pamela
 
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It's spine surgeries. I took it in September 2019, passed the first time. It is all ortho related with quite a few spine surgery questions. The E/M part of it, it seems those were all office related. There is also a lot of ankle/foot surgeries, so study up on that if you take it. There are couple of staged surgery settings, one was three staged surgeries, foot/ankle. There was only one joint replacement question, conversion of previous hip surgery to total hip. You need a 70% to pass, so if you are weak in one area, you should be okay.
 
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Hi, I have my COSC, passed the first time, it has a lot of Spine , Ankle, and Hip procedures. Pretty elaborate cases on ankles (some staged procedures) if I remember right. For the E/M you should make sure you are familiar with everything in the E/M section of the CPT book.
 
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klienhart said:
It's spine surgeries. I took it in September 2019, passed the first time. It is all ortho related with quite a few spine surgery questions. The E/M part of it, it seems those were all office related. There is also a lot of ankle/foot surgeries, so study up on that if you take it. There are couple of staged surgery settings, one was three staged surgeries, foot/ankle. There was only one joint replacement question, conversion of previous hip surgery to total hip. You need a 70% to pass, so if you are weak in one area, you should be okay.
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Okay great, is there any global modifiers with the total hip surgery, like 78 or 58? Also the e/m you said were office levels only. I code Ortho a lot, but never spinal surgeries such as laminectomies. Would that be the type of spinal surgeries they are asking about? Like in the 22100 section? Did you prep with the aapc prep guides?
Thank you
 
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crice01 said:
Hi, I have my COSC, passed the first time, it has a lot of Spine , Ankle, and Hip procedures. Pretty elaborate cases on ankles (some staged procedures) if I remember right. For the E/M you should make sure you are familiar with everything in the E/M section of the CPT book.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much. I code a lot of ankle, hip, knee, shoulder, etc orthopedic procedures. I do also code e/m daily. Just need to learn the spine. Is there several global procedures?
 
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pwebbabshire@cox.net said:
Thank you so much. I code a lot of ankle, hip, knee, shoulder, etc orthopedic procedures. I do also code e/m daily. Just need to learn the spine. Is there several global procedures?
Click to expand...

I honestly don't remember, I do remember the staged procedures though. Also, with the Spinal procedures, when you sit for the test watch the words that are used and compare them closely to the CPT description... sometimes its one word that makes the difference in the code selection.
 
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crice01 said:
Hi, I have my COSC, passed the first time, it has a lot of Spine , Ankle, and Hip procedures. Pretty elaborate cases on ankles (some staged procedures) if I remember right. For the E/M you should make sure you are familiar with everything in the E/M section of the CPT book.
Click to expand...
can you elaborate on what you mean by staged surgeries. Are you talking about like several days they take the patient back to surgery. Also I do code E/M, more hospital consults though. I code E/M based on insurance specific though. So how does that work for this test. Another words Medicare does not take consults so we code from Initial Hospital Care if inpatient. Any information would be helpful.
Thank you,
Pamela
 
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Also I see that there is some E/M on the exam. I do code E/M, Consults, but I only use the Organ Systems 1997 guideline.
Will we also have to know the 1995 guidelines?
Any information would be helpful.
Thank you,
Pamela
 
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One more question for anyone who can help me. What book to bring into the exam to check if any CPT codes are bundled. Right now I use encoder, but for the test I will need something to check that.
Another words if I have more than one CPT code to put together. Would that be in the coding companion books? I was just told by AAPC that I cannot use the Orthopedics specialty guide books Volumns 1 & 2 for the exam.
 
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crice01 said:
Hi, I have my COSC, passed the first time, it has a lot of Spine , Ankle, and Hip procedures. Pretty elaborate cases on ankles (some staged procedures) if I remember right. For the E/M you should make sure you are familiar with everything in the E/M section of the CPT book.
Click to expand...
If I may ask for those who have taken this exam, how did you check for CCI edits during the test to know if you need a 59 modifier on any cpt codes?
Thanks,
 
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pwebbabshire@cox.net said:
One more question for anyone who can help me. What book to bring into the exam to check if any CPT codes are bundled. Right now I use encoder, but for the test I will need something to check that.
Another words if I have more than one CPT code to put together. Would that be in the coding companion books? I was just told by AAPC that I cannot use the Orthopedics specialty guide books Volumns 1 & 2 for the exam.
Click to expand...
The AAPC orthopedics specialty guide 1 & 2 are not listed as books not allowed. I think you may have spoken with someone who didn’t know because I had a friend sit for hers with those books specifically. Strange they would say that since they are AAPCs version only the AMA coding companions.
 
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From my experience, you MUST have an AMA CPT book. I took the AAPC version the first time I tested and they took my CPT book.(I have never worked harder to pass a test, only got 69%.) ICD-10, HCPCS, Dictionary and Upper and Lower Spine Companions and E/M guidelines are allowed. Just pay attention to the verbiage. Usually the description is word for word. Best of Luck!
 
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akfrog62@gmail.com said:
From my experience, you MUST have an AMA CPT book. I took the AAPC version the first time I tested and they took my CPT book.(I have never worked harder to pass a test, only got 69%.) ICD-10, HCPCS, Dictionary and Upper and Lower Spine Companions and E/M guidelines are allowed. Just pay attention to the verbiage. Usually the description is word for word. Best of Luck!
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I'm confused on what you mean about the CPT book. AAPC doesn't have a CPT book - they sell the AMA version.

Do you mean that you took the Procedural Coding Expert to the exam instead of the CPT Book?
 
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