The introductory course I teach in health information technology (HIT) gives students the basics on health information. This week I did a lecture on the diversity of career options available in HIT. Students coming into the program are usually familiar with coding and transcription, but they are not familiar with other ...

I try to attend coding updates annually, and I always learn something new. I attended a workshop this week on the 2010 ICD-9 changes. The amount of information is just mind-boggling. It is a good thing I don't have to perform coding for a living. The rationale behind using the new codes can be more confusing than the codes themselves. ...

I was thrilled to pass the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) certified professional coder (CPC) test on the first try this past spring. The experience was nerve wracking, and I didn't think I would survive it. Well, you are reading this blog, so I obviously lived through the experience. I anticipated keeping up ...

From time to time, we all complain. We used to keep it among friends, family or a goldfish with a compassionate ear, but with the advent of social media, it's become all too easy to tweet a 140-character rant for all to hear. Now, a physician is using his own social networking site as a soapbox to speak out against the American Medical Association ...

I attended my first AAPC local chapter meeting last week. The meeting was an informal session on the daily duties of a coder. Coders shared their stories on a typical day at the office. Some people had a dual role of office manager/coder and others functioned as a coder and biller. The variety of tasks that must be completed in a typical day was ...

Over the last 6 months my behavior can best be described as certifiable. This is an old school term that means that I have been totally off my rocker. I have not been the most pleasant person to live with these few months. My husband was just about ready to sign me into a treatment facility. Lucky for me, I took the certified professional coder ...

Deborah Grider, CPC, CPC-I, CPC-H, CPC-P, COBGC, CEMC, CCS-P, said an emotional goodbye as she passed the gavel to incoming AAPC National Advisory Board (NAB) President Terry Leone, CPC, CPC-P, CIC. Grider received several standing ovations during today's awards luncheon, and got choked up a few times. She received pieces of luggage from AAPC and ...

It's the second day at the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) conference in Las Vegas, and the attendees are currently chowing down on breakfast. Yesterday's welcome session was high energy and humorous. AAPC directors took on roles in a skit and ran through a look at coding past, present and future, with music of the times ...

The ADVANCE staff will be rather far flung early next week. Cheryl McEvoy is heading off to Chicago for the HIMSS conference, and I'm boarding a flight to Las Vegas early Sunday morning to take in the AAPC show. We'll be bringing you all sorts of conference coverage from the show and when we get back to our little hub outside of Philadelphia. I ...

I notice that Advance has no one here blogging about coding, yet the discussion forum is predominantly skewed that way. Does the topic just not lend itself to conversation because it is so black and white, like accounting? When I realized my art major would probably mean having to teach, I did a 180 and changed to accounting/business, so I grok ...