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JAN GOLLIHUR-DAVIDSON: I'm Jan Gollihur-Davidson.
I'm a part time instructor for CLIMB.
I am certified to instruct medical coding
through the American Academy of Professional Coders,
and I bring 27 years of health care experience with me to the table.
I currently work in a large teaching hospital where I train and audit 35 coders.
Basic coding is an introduction to coding in the physician's office.
I tour the student through the books and how to use the books,
where to look for the code and how to apply the code by guidelines.
Coding is a very legal entity, and knowing the guidelines
is important so that's where we start.
The student will learn ICD coding for diagnostics,
HCPC (hick-picks) codings for supplies and medications,
CPT coding for visits, and we cover the evaluation
and management and the medicine section in the, in the CPT book.
I need to stress that this is a high impact class.
It's not something that you'll be able to read
for an hour before the class quiz, take the quiz, and pass it.
You're going to have to put in a lot of work.
It's 10 hours of classwork and another 10-15 sometimes in homework,
because coding isn't easy. It takes a long time to learn
how to apply the codes that you're given.
It's a hands-on approach to what you will learn,
what you will be doing when you get out in the field.
There are two prerequisites for the basic medical coding course.
The first one is medical terminology.
If you don't have the basic understanding of how the words work together
you will not be able to read or make sense out of the medical report.
The language that a provider uses is very scientific. They use big words.
And you need to know what they're talking about in the body
in order to assign the correct code.
The second one, prerequisite class that we have,
is advanced anatomy and physiology for coders.
That is because you need to know the physiology
to get to understand the disease process.
Some places that you work at will be where you assign only diagnostic codes.
Some places you work at you'll be doing both diagnostic
and CPT or procedure codes.
Without that basic, fundamental knowledge,
you will not be able to read the reports and figure it out enough to…
or make sense enough to assign those codes to that work.
Coding is a puzzle, and it's a lot of mystery solving.
You read words, and you translate those words into numbers,
and it's kind of a different abstract way of thinking.
I think the most challenging thing about the course is that
there's no right or wrong answer sometimes for a note that there…
that you might be reading.
Students look for a yes or no answer, and sometimes both answers
could be yes or both answers could be no,
and it's very challenging to figure that out.
One thing that helps that is taking the prerequisites
because then you have the language background
and you have the physiology background to know what
the best choice is, or what fits the circumstance the closest.
I think the most surprising thing about coding is the...
how interesting it is. I learn something new every day.
Just for example, the other day I called a provider to find out
how the cochlear implant works to stimulate hearing.
It's more than just the stirrup and hammer bone.
There's a lot more to the ear than that.
And I learned a lot about anatomy just talking to him.
I had no idea that there was such intricate work in the process
of helping somebody to hear.
To code that kind of a report is just more than the words on the paper for me.
Well, at CLIMB for health professionals we offer a reasonable price for a career.
And coding is...you can pay anywhere from $15,000
for an education in coding clear down to learning on the job.
However, they don't teach a lot now,
or they don't train on the job as much as they used to.
They want somebody that's already certified,
and the courses at CLIMB provide you with the information needed
to not only pass the test, but how to actually apply the codes,
learning the guidelines, and ready to work when you go out into the career field.
The basic course is not enough to get certified.
The information that is needed to get certified in, as a CPC is much more...
there's much more involved than what's taught in that class.
This is just a basic introduction that will help the student
decide whether they want to go into a specialty coding,
whether they want to go into a physician's office...
But it'll give enough background to work in a medical office.