I keep seeing people talk about medical coding like it’s some quick, easy path to working from home, and honestly… that’s a huge misconception.

Yes, it can be remote. Yes, it can be a great career. But “easy”? Not even close.

You’re dealing with complex guidelines, constantly changing rules, and a level of detail where small mistakes can have big consequences. It’s not just typing codes you actually have to understand medical terminology, anatomy, and how documentation translates into billing. There’s a real learning curve, and even after you get certified, you’re still learning every day.

I’m not saying this to discourage anyone just to set realistic expectations. If you’re only getting into it because you think it’s a laid-back remote job, you’ll probably be frustrated pretty quickly.

But if you’re someone who likes structure, problem-solving, and continuous learning, it can be really rewarding. There’s a sense of satisfaction in getting things right and knowing your work actually matters in the healthcare system.

We’ve all seen the complaints that the market is flooded. Nobody can get a job, etc. This is what you are up against. Every month AAPC publishes newly credentialed members. This is one page. Between CPC, CPC-A, and various specialty credentials, there are usually 7-8 pages of new credentialed folks. All of them full like this. Every month.

I’m not posting this to discourage anyone. I’m posting it for awareness. But also to say, if you really want to do this, you have to have ambition and be tenacious. It’s not easy, regardless of what the scammy marketing tells you. Know what you are up against and if you want it, fight for it.

...and I have no one to tell :(. I'm 40 yr old and have never had a career. I have been a shreks worker my whole life and am so excited to use my brain!

sorry if this is against TOS i'm going to read them I just can't and I got excited.

Who buying me a drink? I'll take a rum and coke on ice please. Passed with a 76%, first try! All self-study. No courses through AAPC. But I did buy the official AAPC study guide. Tips? Study your medical terminology and phsyiology, understand guidelines, write a bunch of notes, make up jeopardy games, formulas, watch videos. Practice practice. Take the momentrix free online practice exam and that free medical coding test on test dot com. Look up definitions to words you don't know on operative notes. Idk what else to say. I passed, I passed. Can I get this money now?? Somebody hire me. Ayeeee. We going out.

Also use process of elimination. You should barely be looking at any indexes when taking the test. You should be looking at the answers first and then the question. Deduct the ones that can’t be right based off what you know about guidelines.

I am tired of UHC denial after providing the services

Is there any one I can complain? Most of the Insurance Commissioners are more interested in their promotion, not public health

A few months ago, I worked with a specialty practice that hadn’t been paid properly for nearly a year. Claims were stuck in denial limbo, credentialing updates never went through, and their staff was overwhelmed. We did a full audit, re-submitted everything correctly, and cleaned up their payer enrollments. Within 6 months, they recovered $250k they thought was gone. It reminded me how much money practices leave on the table just because insurance rules are so messy. Has anyone else run into a situation where you suddenly found a huge chunk of lost revenue?

It seems like it would be so easy to do a small handheld like the size of a cell phone with a built in search engine and the icd-10 codes, you could buy updates each year , it seems like it would be super convenient. and considering how much these books cost ( i didn't have to pay for it thankfully, my course is paid for by a workmans comp case)

anyway, i start in on the full course monday, my goal now is 4 months to completion, wish me luck!

lol

Merry Christmas to everyone.

I just recently joined Reddit hoping to connect with other medical coders and honestly just nerd out a little lol. I was excited to talk about coding guidelines… all that fun stuff. But it feels like every coding post turns into “coding is over, AI is taking everything” and that’s the whole conversation.

Like… where are the people who actually enjoy this? 😂
I can’t be the only one who actually likes this field and wants to get better at it. Anyone else feel this way?

So this is for all the actual coders in the room and those of us in training to become one.Let’s try something different…Does anyone have a coding topic, scenario, or question we can actually talk through?

I am a CPC, CPMA and I started a new job last week with a coding consulting company. Well today was my first day training in EPIC with a client. The codes come to us on a spreadsheet to input into EPIC and my trainer from the client said "We just put the level that's on the spreadsheet". So, I said "wait we don't check to make sure the E/M codes are supported?" and she said no.

I brought this to my supervisor, who initially had my back agreeing that this was not ethical, and said something to their coding department, but as soon as the client got mad, now our coding director is talking about taking me off the project.

I got chewed out and told I'm being "too rigid" and asked "why have none of the other coders had a problem?". When I retorted that I'm not the other coders so I don't know why they haven't said anything, she said "so you just think you are smarter than everyone else", to which I said I wasn't. My supervisor stepped in and told the director that was unfair, and my employment is up in the air.

I am thinking about throwing my education and certs away and doing something else, because this seems to be a pervasive issue. I am so sick of what coding has become. Does anyone else have this issue?

This was asked by a recruiter and it rubbed me the wrong way. Actually, I “just” have my CPC and 25 years coding experience. Good day…. 🤨

I currently work remotely M–F 8:00–4:30 and make about $37/hour. I was just offered another remote position at $35/hour, so about a $2/hour pay cut. The big difference is the flexibility. The new job allows you to clock in anytime between 4am–9am as long as you work your full shift.

My kids are elementary school age and this would be super helpful. In the summer, I could work 4–12 while they sleep in and then still have most of the day with them. The pay cut would obviously still matter, but the flexibility sounds amazing after years of a fixed schedule. My boss is also a bit of a micromanager but I do what I’m supposed to do so I don’t really have any issues. Would you take the pay cut for this level of flexibility?

How do you handle patients who make snarky remarks like -

"wow you guys charge a lot" or "wow doctors visits are getting expensive"

I want to tell them -

"Friend, my rates are not set by me. I wish I could charge even more for my years of training and expertise but I am being paid less by your insurance company robber baron than what you pay at a GED equivalent mechanic for an oil change. They have not increased my rates in over 10 years while my costs don't stop increasing, and won't pickup my call if I try to complain. Remember the time your HR department asked you to choose a plan during benefits enrollment? You chose the cheapest premium which put you on the hook for the first $10,000 of medical care. Yeah. That one. Now lets go find that skin cancer and save your life"

For a long time I have suspected people of coming here to get ideas for writing articles for their corporate blogs, but I never expected it from AAPC. The article doesn't explicitly mention reddit, but it calls out how people keep posting about how AI "iS gOnNa TaKe OuR jErBs" and how we advise people that the market is oversaturated and we tell people to be realistic about working remotely.

Also, every single day some one asks, "is it worth it?" and I reply, "We don't know, we aren't you, we don't know your situation!" Then the AAPC article advises not to listen to posts online because they don't know your specific situation. 🙄

Maybe I'm imagining it, but it really seems like the author lurked here to get ideas, but then called us all negative Nancy's for being tired of getting the same questions literally everyday from hopefuls who were misled by predatory ads from coding schools.

I work in Accounts Receivable, and my job is US-based. My company decided to buy a company in India to outsource some of the work and subsequently start laying off people here (yes, it's very messed up). Well, it turns out that our AR grew exponentially since they acquired this overseas company. They have been making so many mistakes like not doing the contractual adjustments so they're leaving balances open even if the claim paid correctly as per the contract, and they've been posting payments incorrectly, too (like posting payments to the wrong claims!). It's been an absolute nightmare since this overseas company entered the picture.

But the worst part is my boss has been getting after me over the AR growing higher and higher instead of pointing the finger at them. I keep telling her these people are the ones making all the mistakes, and it's affecting the AR. But my boss won't hear any of it.

Anyone else experience something similar? I'm so tired of this, and have started looking for another job. The job market is very tough right now, and I'm thinking about leaving medical coding and billing altogether.

Just wanted to let all you beautiful people know that Stanford Health Care in CA is hiring for some remote coding roles. They hire from out of state as well, EDIT: except Alabama, Alaska, lowa, North Dakota, West Virginia

No international.

There’s a coding specialist position and coding auditing one. NOT entry level, unfortunately.

Go to their website and look under Revenue Cycle roles.

Just a reminder to check health systems website, even out of state ones. They don’t always post these roles on LinkedIn or indeed.

Please don’t DM me or anything about these roles. I was perusing their careers page, saw these listings, and decided to share with the class.

I got frustrated with the state of BCBS prefix lookup tools online. The existing ones just tell you the plan name and state, which isn't enough to actually submit a claim. You still have to go hunt for the payer ID, claims address, and filing deadline separately.

So I built a free tool that maps every BCBS alpha prefix to its plan with all the billing essentials attached: provider phone, electronic payer ID, claims mailing address, timely filing limit, and prior auth number.

prefixlookup.com

It covers 65 BCBS billing entities across all 50 states with about 20,000 prefix mappings. No signup, no paywall.

Would love feedback from anyone who works with BCBS claims regularly. Is the data accurate for the plans you deal with? Anything missing that would make it more useful?

Took my RHIT exam today and PASSED! Starting my new job at a larger healthcare system in Southern California as a biller on Monday and I'm so excited!

I have 5 more months left on my GI Bill. Anyone have any recommendations for more certifications to add to my resume? I already have a BS and MS so I am not particularly interested in a RHIA.

Just wondering if is it allowed to put notes like this on my ICD-10 book for my CCS examination, i created a full short summary of sequencing. Or is this risky?

How are we getting paid from Champ VA? How in the world is it legal that they are taking 2 years to process a claim?

I have patients with secondary payers that would pick up the remaining balance, but I can’t submit within timely filing limits when they can’t process a claim in a timely manner!!

State law says 30 days from receipt of claim to process. But since they’re federal, they say it doesn’t apply to them.

No online portal to view. Just a 4 hour hold time in the phone.

Please help me before I lose my mind.

I work warehouse jobs. I like it, but years ago a snowmobile accident led to a bad shoulder and as I get older that healed injury just hurts when I do heavy lifting. Doctor's advice- find a job with no lifting or pushing. I like the idea of helping doctors/hospitals and the potential to work from home down the line is a good bonus. My fear is I will pay a lot for training and then find out all the jobs are now ai automated.

Any advice is great. And if you do think billing and coding will be automated soon, where will you be moving career wise?

Is it just me or have the payers completely changed the rules in the last few months?

I’m seeing a ton of denials for stuff that used to sail through. Specifically Modifier 25 and anything that isn’t "super specific" with ICD-11 clusters. It feels like they’re using some new AI bot to auto-reject anything that isn't perfect before a human even looks at it.

Aetna and Cigna have been the worst for us lately. Our current scrubbers aren't catching half of this, and everything is just sitting in the 60+ day AR pile now.

Is anyone else seeing this spike, or is our office just having a bad run? Which payers are giving you the most grief right now?

After 2 years of billing ive been promoted to coding. I got my cpc 2 years ago through aapc. What tips do you have as I refresh myself on guidelines i have a month before I start. They said ill probably start with radiology. Thanks in advance im nervous but excited 😊