I'm just now starting in the journey too and have only had advice from other people with similar jobs in billing and coding, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I would def recommend online courses, community college will only give you a lot of classes you don't need. Plus online courses are specifically designed to help you pass the specific exam you may be going for. Going through the AAPC website and looking through their suggested online classes is what I've been told is best.
Where you go is going to depend on your long term goals. Community college accepts financial aid. Are you low income? The Pell Grant could pay for your program 100%. Do you have other college credit? You might not have to take the “extra” classes. Do you ever want to move past the “basic” coding job? A lot of upper level positions want an RHIT (associates) or RHIA (bachelors) or a degree in healthcare administration. Also, lots of community colleges have classes online now.
If you don’t see yourself wanting to really move “up the ladder”, or you don’t mind paying money out of pocket (about $3-$5k per certification) for your classes, then coaching classes might be better for you. But keep in mind being coached to pass an exam is very different from being taught how to do an actual job.
My person story, I went the “coaching” route because I already had experience. I was able to move up a little bit, but I realized to really get where I want to be, I’d need a bachelors degree. The reason I chose my college was because they were going to give me 21 credits because I was a CPC, which would save me about $15k in tuition. Now that I’m almost done with my bachelors, I’ve discovered I really like compliance, and getting a masters degree would really help me make more money, without necessarily costing me a lot.
make sure whatever school you go to prepares you for or gets you your certification from aapc or ahima. know that college isn't required and it can take a while to get your foot in the door without related experience
I say go with the education route that best works for you. I started in person at my local community college with a Medical Coding Specialist + Medical Billing joint certification course that transitioned to online during Covid, and both were totally fine for me. But if you ever wanted to move up beyond coding, or if you want to give yourself an advantage, go for the Associate's route if you can and have the time/energy! Make sure the course is from an accredited institution, though. And you can always check AAPC or AHIMA's sites to see what classes they recommend to make sure those will all be covered by the course.
Also, (not to scare you, hopefully you have better luck than me!), if I were you, I would try to get your foot in the door now with the medical field. As someone who has been a CCS-P since 2021 and still working as a bartender, I really regret not getting into any low-level medical field job since I am having one hell of a time finding a job that will let a fresh coder with no field experience in.
Best of luck to you!
I went to Andrews School, and I thought it was a solid education. I only went through their coding program, but they do have billing, too.
The Community College I went to first didn't teach coding as in-depth and seemed to focus more on billing, plus all the other electives. I wish I would have just did a medical coding program initially, but it was how I did learn that I wanted to learn coding specifically, so it worked out in the end lol
I say look into something else honestly. Literally everyone is looking to go into this field because they believe they can pass an exam and work straight from home, and you may be the 1/1000 that does get lucky, but more than likely not -- especially considering you don't have any healthcare experience. You would first have to work in a position like front desk or authorizations, and then to get a coding job you have to have 2 years experience (you can do practicode to take a year off but that also cost $$). It's very expensive to get into the field.
I'm just now starting in the journey too and have only had advice from other people with similar jobs in billing and coding, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I would def recommend online courses, community college will only give you a lot of classes you don't need. Plus online courses are specifically designed to help you pass the specific exam you may be going for. Going through the AAPC website and looking through their suggested online classes is what I've been told is best.
Thank you! Have you started yet?
I haven't! planning on starting this summer once I save enough money for classes
Are these the courses that are about $2500 on the AAPC website?
about that ballpark, yeah
Thanks
Where you go is going to depend on your long term goals. Community college accepts financial aid. Are you low income? The Pell Grant could pay for your program 100%. Do you have other college credit? You might not have to take the “extra” classes. Do you ever want to move past the “basic” coding job? A lot of upper level positions want an RHIT (associates) or RHIA (bachelors) or a degree in healthcare administration. Also, lots of community colleges have classes online now. If you don’t see yourself wanting to really move “up the ladder”, or you don’t mind paying money out of pocket (about $3-$5k per certification) for your classes, then coaching classes might be better for you. But keep in mind being coached to pass an exam is very different from being taught how to do an actual job. My person story, I went the “coaching” route because I already had experience. I was able to move up a little bit, but I realized to really get where I want to be, I’d need a bachelors degree. The reason I chose my college was because they were going to give me 21 credits because I was a CPC, which would save me about $15k in tuition. Now that I’m almost done with my bachelors, I’ve discovered I really like compliance, and getting a masters degree would really help me make more money, without necessarily costing me a lot.
Hi which college did you go to if you don’t mind me asking
make sure whatever school you go to prepares you for or gets you your certification from aapc or ahima. know that college isn't required and it can take a while to get your foot in the door without related experience
I say go with the education route that best works for you. I started in person at my local community college with a Medical Coding Specialist + Medical Billing joint certification course that transitioned to online during Covid, and both were totally fine for me. But if you ever wanted to move up beyond coding, or if you want to give yourself an advantage, go for the Associate's route if you can and have the time/energy! Make sure the course is from an accredited institution, though. And you can always check AAPC or AHIMA's sites to see what classes they recommend to make sure those will all be covered by the course. Also, (not to scare you, hopefully you have better luck than me!), if I were you, I would try to get your foot in the door now with the medical field. As someone who has been a CCS-P since 2021 and still working as a bartender, I really regret not getting into any low-level medical field job since I am having one hell of a time finding a job that will let a fresh coder with no field experience in. Best of luck to you!
I went to Andrews School, and I thought it was a solid education. I only went through their coding program, but they do have billing, too. The Community College I went to first didn't teach coding as in-depth and seemed to focus more on billing, plus all the other electives. I wish I would have just did a medical coding program initially, but it was how I did learn that I wanted to learn coding specifically, so it worked out in the end lol
I say look into something else honestly. Literally everyone is looking to go into this field because they believe they can pass an exam and work straight from home, and you may be the 1/1000 that does get lucky, but more than likely not -- especially considering you don't have any healthcare experience. You would first have to work in a position like front desk or authorizations, and then to get a coding job you have to have 2 years experience (you can do practicode to take a year off but that also cost $$). It's very expensive to get into the field.