tips for success in medical coding "A"

Medical coders do have a lot of information to learn. Here are the top tips from our contributors on how to be successful in your studies:

1. Enhance your learning with flashcards, online quizzes and other supplemental educational materials. Practice and deep understanding is essential to the job.
2. Make sure you actually grasp what you are learning. The minimum won’t be enough to pass the certification exam.
3. YouTube videos can be very helpful in furthering your understanding of a medical concept. The exercise at the end of the textbook readings will also boost your learning.
4. When you are sure that you understand it, read it one more time.
5. Study and review daily. This will help you translate information from your short term memory to the long term.
6. Start your studies by reading the guidelines at the front of the book, use that information to prompt your learning.

Can medical coding be fun?

Medical coding is “like a puzzle and solving a mystery all in one,” says Donna Nugteren, director of revenue cycle for Avera Medical Group Clinic. Once you’ve learned all of the possible solutions, you get to assign the right one to the mystery at hand.

It’s also interesting to learn about all of the unusual reasons people seek medical care, says Brooks. And of course there’s the occasional awkward misspelling or unfortunate word placement that can seem like something off of Jay Leno’s Headlines. For example, “the lab test indicated abnormal lover function.”

What are the most challenging aspects of medical coding?

Human anatomy has a lot of grey areas but medical coding is black and white. The challenge comes in transforming cloudy and complex medical symptoms into clear, discernible codes.

For example, ICD-10 students must understand the symptoms that are integral to a disease, explains Reitmeyer. The doctor will pass along case information with notations about the symptoms and coders are responsible for pulling out the important parts to document.

Attention to detail is critical, says current Rasmussen College student, Teresa Martini. You have to re-check your work against the alphabetical coding list which can be time consuming and tedious, but ultimately helps to eliminate errors.

It is also challenging to keep up with industry changes. Existing medical codes are updated, changed or discarded every year.

And the most important part for learning medical coding is applying the guidelines set by the industry regulators, says Judy Wilson, AAPC ICD-10 Training Expert & business administrator for Anesthesia Specialists in Virginia.

It is critical for professionals working in the field to stay on top of these changes to avoid documenting inaccurate information.