Coding Industry Basics Course

Coding plays a vital role in the field of medicine. It is the way that has evolved for doctor’s offices, hospitals, insurance companies, government agencies, and databases to communicate with one another using the same numeric language. In this introductory course, you will learn this rich and important history. You will also discover how medical coding fits within the vast network of medical facilities, policies and procedures. There are many significant opportunities for quality medical coding specialists to build a long term and stimulating career. Learn what these opportunities are as you begin your journey in this field.

Foundations of Medical Language Course

As a medical coder, you will spend the majority of your time reading and interpreting medical records. It is vital that you have a strong foundation in the language of medicine in order to do this quickly and easily. The CareerWize Foundations of Medical Language Module gives you everything you need to read and understand this vast language.

• Analyzing Word Structure: Medical Language consists of thousands of terms, sometimes long and almost always unfamiliar to the average English speaker. However, these words are made up of only a few hundred building blocks or word parts. You will be surprised how easy it is to learn these parts in a fun and interactive way as you play games and understand the simple rules that govern the language.

• Body Divisions: The human body can be divided in several ways for study and reference. You will learn to describe body planes and directions, various body cavities, quadrants and regions.

• Specialties: The practical field of medicine is generally divided into specialties according to the systems of the body and how the body actually works. In this module you will learn what the major medical specialties are and the terms most commonly used in them.

• Language of the Healthcare Setting: Medical infrastructure and facilities have their very own way of speaking. This module takes you through the HIM workplace and teaches you the different types of facilities, as well as terms associated with documentation and professional staffing.

Anatomy & Disease Course

This comprehensive course takes you through the basic Anatomy and Physiology of the human body, starting at the cellular level. This means you will be learning what all the organs and body systems actually are and how they work. This understanding will include how disease impacts the body and its systems, as that will be paramount in your role as a medical coder. Unlike any anatomy textbook you have ever seen, this interactive course will elevate and deepen your understanding in fun and engaging ways.

• Building Blocks: The human body is made of millions and millions of tiny structures that all work together to form the human body and give it life. Use games and interaction to discover how the body is organized chemically and at the cellular level.

• Disease Processes: Although you will learn about diseases within each system, this module will walk you through a basic understanding of disease itself and how to classify diseases—specifically designed to assist your work as a medical coder.

• Integumentary System: The largest organ of the human body is actually the skin. Explore the skin, hair, nails and exocrine glands, along with the diseases that commonly affect them.

• Skeletal System: Made up of bones, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, the skeletal system not only serves as the body’s framework, but also fulfills the vital role of protecting all the organs that make the body function.

• Muscular System: Closely tied to the skeletal system, the muscular system’s primary role is to allow movement and facilitate posture. You will learn about this and the diseases that interfere with its important role.

• Nervous System: Essentially the body’s “electrical system” the nervous system is a vast network of tiny fibers and cells (known as neurons), the brain and spinal cord that are responsible for all movement both voluntary and involuntary.

• Endocrine System: The endocrine system is a collection of glands that are responsible for important functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, sleep, and mood.

• Cardiovascular System: Sometimes referred to as the “circulatory system,” this includes the heart, blood vessels and the very blood that gives the human body life, transporting oxygen and nutrients to every cell. Probably the hardest working of all the systems, you will learn how it works and what diseases put it in jeopardy.

• Lymphatic System: Lymph is the fluid that contains white blood cells, whose job is to take up the sword and fight infection. The tissues and organs that comprise this system play a big role in the body’s ability to overcome disease.

• Respiratory System: This system’s role is to breathe in oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. Conditions that interfere with this process can be lethal.

• Digestive System: The human body requires energy to survive, and the digestive system includes all the organs that take nutrition in and convert it into that energy. It also includes supplemental organs such as the tongue, gallbladder, and liver that help with digestion, although the food doesn’t actually pass through it.

• Urinary System: This system is comprised of the organs, tubes, muscles, etc. that have the fun job of creating, storing and then eliminating urine from the body. The rock stars of this system are the kidneys, so it is sometimes called the renal system. All kinds of things can block, impede, and infect this system and wreak havoc.

• Reproductive System: Obviously different in men and women, this system includes all the organs and ancillary components to perpetuate the human species, or in simpler terms, make babies. Because of its vital role in the survival of the species, many scientists think that this is the most important system of all. You can determine this for yourself as you learn about it and what diseases impact its function.

Pharmacology Course

In Western Medicine, many problems that afflict the human body are treated by the use of medications and other pharmaceuticals. Because of this, medical reports generally include a treatment or recommendation that includes at least one drug. As a medical coder, it will be important for your success to be able to recognize and properly code these medications. As in other modules, multi-media, games, and interactions will engage you and assist your learning as you explore the world of pharmacology.

• Introduction: This module introduces you to how drugs are classified. More importantly, you will begin to see how drugs get into the body and begin to act upon it during treatment.

• Pharmacology by Body System: Medications and drug treatment vary widely across different body systems. After all, you would rarely use a fertility drug to treat a broken bone, right? This course is organized by body system to assist you in applying your education to specific medical specialties.

• Pharmacology References: This is where an understanding of drugs and medications really impacts your performance as a medical coder. There are thousands of drugs, and your ability to use and interpret reference materials will make you faster and more productive on the job.

Health Data Management Course

The ability to be evaluated, treated, and ultimately recover from medical problems is vital to a healthy society. And documenting that process is a critical component in the delivery of quality healthcare. Proper documentation enables caregivers to properly plan and evaluate patient’s symptoms and treatment, as well as assure continuity of care throughout their whole life. It also facilitates communication between healthcare providers, provides vital statistics for research and healthcare trends, and substantiates and enables accurate billing. For all of these reasons and others, there are significant ethical and regulatory realities that impact Healthcare. It is important for you, as a medical coder, to understand and perform your role in that process. You will engage in meaningful interactive exercises as you learn and apply the complexities of the healthcare structure and organization.

• Technology: As the Healthcare world has moved to the HER (electronic health record), technology has played an increasingly important role. Learn how to use technology as a resource and in your role as a medical coder.

• Evolution of Coding: ICD-9 finally gave way to the International Standard ICD-10 in October of 2015. Explore this coding system, and the others that make up the interplay between a patient being seen and a doctor getting paid.

• Documentation, Confidentiality, and Ethics: This is where you begin to understand government regulation and the role it will play in your life as a medical coder. Think HIPAA, compliance, and the sacrosanct doctor/patient privilege which daily impact your world.

• Healthcare Organization: Who makes up this industry we call Healthcare? Everyone from the patient to the doctor, to governing agencies, insurance companies, vendors, and trade associations.

• Medical Record Content: As an Outpatient Medical Coder, you will work with a variety of medical records and reports. An understanding of what these are and how they are composed will make your job as a coder easier.

• Healthcare Reimbursement: Perhaps the most important aspect of documentation lies in its role in triggering payment. Without proper coding, claims processing, and billing, nobody gets paid. Learn how this complicated medical process works.

ICD-10-CM Coding Course

As an outpatient coder, you will spend a great deal of time in your ICD-10-CM Code Book or software. A thorough understanding of what that means is obviously important. ICD stands for International Classification of Diseases. Developed and owned by the World Health Organization, ICD-10 took a long time and was repeatedly delayed in its adoption by the United States. Political reasons aside, the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 meant going from 13,000 codes to 68,000 codes, and most professionals agree not only improved the previous system, but brought America in alignment with the rest of the world.

There are two subsets of ICD-10, but in Physician-Based Coding, you will only need to worry about ICD-10-CM. These are diagnostic codes, or codes assigned to whatever a physician determines the patient’s diagnosis to be (or what is wrong with the patient). Your job will primarily be to find and assign the proper diagnostic codes to each record, in the proper order. This detailed, gamified, interactive course will enable you to do that.

• Introduction: You will learn more about the great migration to ICD-10 and how it improved coding.

• Code Structure and Coding Guidelines: You will learn how to use and apply Coding conventions and general Coding Guidelines to find and apply the correct code.

• Diagnostic Coding for Outpatient Services: Believe it or not, coding is really quite different if a patient is treated as an outpatient or an inpatient. See and understand the outpatient world you will be part of.

• Chapter-Specific Training: Your ICD-10-CM Code Book is organized according to anatomical system. You will work and play your way through 20 separate modules to help you understand and apply chapter-specific guidelines for each of these systems.

CPT® HCPCS Procedural Coding Course

While ICD-10-CM codes are diagnostic codes to assign numbers to what is wrong with a patient, a CPT® code is used to describe medical, surgical, radiology, laboratory, anesthesia, and other services or procedures which are done by physicians or other healthcare providers. CPT® stands for Current Procedural Terminology® and is created and maintained by the American Medical Association. There are approximately 7,800 CPT® codes, and they all consist of five numbers. 92083, for example, is the CPT® code for a visual field examination. Technically CPT® codes are actually level I HCPCS.

HCPCS Level II Codes are those codes that don’t fit under level I or CPT®. These include services and supplies that are not found anywhere else, such as ambulance services and prosthetics. HCPCS stands for Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System, but in the industry everyone refers to it as “hick picks.” These are sometimes referred to as alpha-numeric codes because they contain both a letter and numbers. For example K0012 is the code for a lightweight motorized wheelchair.

This course teaches you how these Code Books are organized, and how to find the proper code when performing your work as an Outpatient Coder. In addition, there are what is known as Code Modifiers that you will need to apply. Learn what these modifiers are and how to use them.

Study Decks

The Study Decks are a gamified approach to prepare students to sit for a national outpatient coder exam.  You can take practice tests over and over again, removing questions you have mastered.

The Healthcare Industry requires that working medical codes demonstrate a foundational knowledge by having passed an examination offered by either AAPC or AHIMA. The Careerwize Outpatient Program prepares students to take and successfully pass these examinations.

Practice, play, and prepare to take this test using Careerwize’s unique gamified tool designed explicitly for this purpose. Pre-loaded with possible questions you may see on the examination, you can choose to be timed or not, compete with others, or study on your own. This tool takes the stress and worry out of getting ready to sit for this test, and greatly increases your chances of passing on the first try!