Explore a Career in Medical Coding

In this lesson, you will learn all about the musculoskeletal system and study some important musculoskeletal vocabulary. Review the code categories for the most common muscle and bone conditions and injuries and learn how to code the procedures doctors use to treat common problems.

This lesson focuses on the respiratory system, and how to code the most common respiratory conditions and injuries. After that, you will practice coding the most common respiratory procedures that doctors use on their patients.

In this lesson, you'll explore the cardiovascular system. You'll learn how to code common heart, vein, and artery conditions and diseases and how to code the procedures doctors use most often to treat these common diagnoses. As always, this lesson follows up on cardiovascular diseases and procedures with coding practice.

In this lesson, you will learn all about the digestive system and the endocrine system. Begin by studying some important vocabulary for both systems, and then review the code categories for the most common conditions, diseases, and injuries. After that, explore the procedures doctors perform to fix digestive and endocrine system problems.

In the last of your system-specific lessons, you will review the male and female genitourinary systems; and learn how to code common conditions, diseases, and procedures for both systems. You will also spend time discussing maternity and childbirth and the special medical coding challenges you will need to consider in those cases.

Ready to get to know Evaluation and Management codes? In this lesson, you will learn the three key components of any E/M service and discover some helpful charts you can use to narrow down an E/M code range to a final E/M code. And as you probably guessed, this lesson ends with plenty of E/M coding practice!

In the final lesson, you will find out what's included in a surgical package and what's not. You will also learn all about modifiers and find out why medical coders use them to let insurance companies know about special circumstances. Finally, you will put everything you've learned throughout the course together by coding some practice scenarios that incorporate all of the different types of codes!

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.​

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Medical Coders are responsible for processing patient data including medical records and related insurance. In this career, you will appropriately code a patient's diagnosis so medical billers can request payment from the patient's insurance company. If you decide this career is for you, you'll play an important role in ensuring that healthcare providers are quickly and accurately paid for the treatment they give patients.

Yes. There is a high demand for qualified medical coding professionals in the healthcare industry today. Demand will continue to increase as the population in the Unites States ages. Jobs for these professionals are on the rise and expected to grow faster than average through 2026 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Medical coders work in a variety of settings. The most common settings include hospitals, and doctors' offices. Some medical coding professionals also work for companies that develop medical software, and some work for educational institutions that work to train other medical coders. Government agencies have also been known to employ medial coders including the National Center for Health Statistics and Medicaid offices. You may even have the ability to work for a reputable company from your own home!

If you decide to pursue a career in medical coding, your day will be a rewarding one. You will be responsible for ensuring that healthcare providers receive appropriate compensation for the care they provide as well as helping patients get the maximum benefit of their insurance. It is a job that requires a high level of attention to detail at all times because codes must be correct to produce appropriate bills for services. Much of your time will be spent in front of a computer. It's also important to coordinate with other coders to ensure accuracy and adherence to standards.

According to the AAPC based on its membership, the average Medical Coder without certification earns around $45,000 per year while those with certification earn an average of $51,500. This means that certification can help you earn up to 15 percent more in this field! Other salary websites place the median salary for those just starting out in Medical Coding around $38,500.

The CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) Manual is the set of medical codes used by medical coders to report medical, surgical, radiology, laboratory, anesthesiology, and diagnostic procedures and services performed on patients to other entities such as doctors and health insurance companies. All healthcare providers, payers and facilities use the same set of CPT codes.

ICD-10-CM stands for International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification. It is a code system used by doctors and other healthcare providers to classify symptoms, procedures, and diagnoses in combination with hospital care. The ICD-10-CM is developed by the World Health Organization and governed by the National Center for Health Statistics to be used throughout the United States.

Medical billers are mainly responsible for submitting patient records to government agencies and insurance companies for services that have been provided in the care of the patient. Medical coders gather information on patient records and assign the proper codes for patient diagnoses which are then used by medical billers to submit claim forms.

Due to the more technical nature of the job and increased training required, medical coders tend to make more than medical billers on an annual basis. Both medical billers and medical coders are in high demand and according to AAPC, both receive regular increases in pay.