Coding Career WirePass the CPC-H Exam With These Tips

Pass the CPC-H Exam With These Tips

Editor — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:42:20 +0000

Party's over. What's your resolution?

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to see the letters CPC-H after your name, here’s some help from a man who took — and passed — the CPC-H exam.

Supercoder.com’s Manas Maity had worked mostly in physician coding before he decided to go for his CPC-H last year. The exam tested his ICD-9 coding knowledge more than he expected, he tells My Coding Career. (He adds that the exam’s HCPCS and CPT coding questions were pretty much what he expected).

To ace the diagnosis coding questions, take advantage of ‘open book’ and pay attention to notations like ‘includes,’ ‘excludes,’ ‘use additional code’ and ‘code first conditions,’ he counsels. Also, pay close attention to the 4th- and 5th-digit-required notations. Minding your fourth and fifth digits is harder in some of this year’s ICD-9 books, which use color highlighting instead of marginal notations, Maity notes.

And, never code from the alphabetic index. Some exam questions are written to catch you trying to take this ill-advised shortcut, which can result in incorrect coding.

During your study time, review diagnosis coding rules and practice coding conditions like burns, septicemia, diabetes, and some cardiovascular disorders, some of which are likely to appear on the exam.

Finally, Maity advises test takers to brush up on Medicare terms, acronyms and rules like ABN, the Stark law, OPPS, CLIA, the birthday rule, MSP, Black Lung, COBRA, and “some which I’d never heard of.”

Feeling a little rusty on Medicare trivia yourself? Tune in next time to My Coding Career for our Medicare Mumbo Jumbo Quick Start Guide and arm yourself with tools to need to answer the exam’s compliance and regulatory questions.

There’s a CPC-H exam prep training camp coming soon to a city near you. Find out more here.

ICD-O?! Meet a Cancer Registrar

Editor — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:05:13 +0000

Part-time, flexible hours a big plus for this working mom.

Once you know how to read medical records and assign codes, your career possibilities are practically endless. Today, let’s meet Jennifer McBride, who works as a cancer registrar at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, UT.

What Jennifer Does at Work: She “abstracts” the charts of each cancer patient who been diagnosed with or treated for cancer at her hospital. She assigns codes to communicate particular information about each patient, and that data goes to a database available that cancer researchers use. She works with the ICD-9 codes that other hospital personnel have assigned, as well as her own profession’s ICD-O codes.

What Jennifer Likes Best About Her Job: She enjoys learning about cancer and the new treatments and trends. ”The work I do provides valuable information that helps doctors provide better treatment and survival for cancer patients,” she tells My Coding Career.

Biggest Challenges: The job requires a lot of focus and brainwork, she reports. “Sometimes the information I code is subjective, so it sometimes can be frustrating to provide the most accurate information … even after doing it 11 years!” (Sound familiar?) Also, the coding rules and guidelines change constantly. (Sound familiar?)

A Big Perk: When Jennifer began working as a cancer registrar 11 years ago, she worked full-time. But she’s been able to reduce her hours as her young family grows and changes. She’s enjoyed both a three-day-a-week and a one-day-a-week schedule. At this stage of her career she only abstracts, but there are lots of other things that full-time cancer registrars do.

How She Got This Gig: In college, Jennifer took some anatomy and medical terminology courses, and earned a bachelor’s degree in health promotion. She applied for a cancer registrar opening at the hospital, and got all her job-specific training on the job.

Some day, she might try to earn her CTR and become a “Certified Tumor Registrar,” but at her workplace there are no salary incentives to do so. ”From what I’ve heard, the test is somewhat difficult and has about a 60% pass rate the 1st time,” Jennifer says. “But most people that I know in Utah have passed it the first time.”

“My advice to anyone considering a career in cancer registry is to find out exactly what the job entails — maybe shadow someone for a day.” Jennifer suggests. “It is a good job that allows lots of flexibility, provides lots of learning opportunities, and for a full-time worker provides a variety of responsibilities.”

Coming to a city near you: Back-to-Basics Coding Seminars.

Medical Coding Career Path: Cancer Registrar

Editor — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:30:24 +0000

Did you know that you can bring your medical coding skills to the front lines in the battle against cancer — and maybe earn more money than you do now?

One career option for health information professionals (that’s you, coders and billers) is cancer registrar, according to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Part of the cancer registrar’s job will look very familiar to you. They review medical records and path reports and assign codes to describe diagnoses and treatments. These codes become part of a national database, which cancer researchers use to study the disease.

Cancer registrars use ICD-9 codes, as well as ICD-O codes, which are especially for classifying tumors. (The “O” stands for “oncology.”)

To learn more about a career as a cancer registrar, you can visit the National Cancer Registrars Association web site. Most employers listed in the site’s job posting section are seeking candidates with an RHIT and a special cancer registrar certification called the CTR.

If you’re just getting started in your health information career, you need the basics first. Check out these cool classes — coming soon to a city near you.