You might have seen or heard of various online 3-day or 1-week CPC exam crash courses that claim a successful clearing of the test. Some students might even clear the test but they will struggle to find a medical career job. The thing is that almost all companies that hire medical coders require a pre-hire test. The purpose of this test is to measure an individual coder’s coding skills and check if they are able to code properly. The lack of knowledge and the inability to code correctly are some of the main reasons why medical coders are unable to find employment.
Clearing the certification test isn’t enough
If you thought that successfully clearing the CPC test is enough to start a medical coding career, this is where you are wrong. Passing the exam is just the beginning. According to recent industry estimates, India has the second largest number of medical coders after the United States with approximately 15,000-16,000 professionals in the sector. Since medical coding is one of the most highly demanded jobs in the medical field, it is no wonder to see this number of students. However, the thing is that not everyone is able to begin their career with ease as the competition is pretty stiff and only those with the right set of professional coding skills are able to secure their spot.
Maintain High Standards
The CPC certification exam by AAPC costs a chunk of money and is not easy to achieve high scores without proper training and preparation. In most cases, candidates have to pay a huge amount to attempt and achieve a passing score. Even after that, candidates will have to clear the pre-hire test before joining a healthcare sector and will be tested throughout their coding careers. Therefore, to overcome these challenges and keep their jobs, coders will have to upgrade their knowledge, maintain high coding standards and be willing to learn.
No Room For Shortcuts
The medical coding sector is a vast area with medical codes and guidelines defined for each type of medical condition, diagnosis and more. If you want to be successful and start a long-term career, you must learn and understand the concepts from a renowned medical coding training institution. Do you believe that you can learn the entire medical coding techniques and guidelines over a weekend? Just think about it. As a student pursuing medical coding, you must know about the various medical terminologies, anatomy and physiology, ICD-10-CM and CPT guidelines, etc. This learning process will take more than a week, therefore, don’t even think about choosing the shortcut route to becoming a medical coder.
Get trained at a reputed institution
If you are seriously considering a medical coding career, make sure to do your research. Apart from learning, medical coding requires dedication, adaptability, and attention to detail. It is recommended to enrol at a reputed medical coding training institution that is affiliated with AAPC for the CPC exam and AHIMA for the CCS exam. These places have the necessary tools and experience to train candidates to pursue and achieve their careers with ease. When it comes to that, Cigma Medical Coding Academy is the right place to get started. We have a highly trained and qualified team that will educate you on all the updated medical coding concepts through theory and practical class sessions. What’s more, we conduct placement drives that allow our candidates to get selected by top employers in the healthcare IT sector. Enrolling at Cigma is pretty easy, all you have to do is make a call to our team who will assist you.
Winding up
So the next time you think about registering for that 3-day or 1-week medical coding crash course program, keep in mind that you will have a hard time securing a job at a reputed place. Why prefer them when you can enrol at a well-known place, get trained, attend the CPC test and secure a rewarding career?