Take your first step toward a lucrative career as a medical coder! In this course, you'll learn how to use the CPT manual and the ICD-9-CM to find medical codes for any disease, condition, treatment, or surgical procedure. This knowledge will help prepare you to work almost anywhere in the medical field—doctors' offices, clinics, public health facilities, hospitals, labs, nursing homes, insurance agencies, or even the comfort of your own home.

We'll go through each of the main systems of the human body—integumentary (skin), musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and male and female genitourinary—outlining the medical terminology, conditions, diseases, injuries, treatments, and procedures you'll see most often in each of those systems.

Along the way, we'll go through lots of real-world examples and coding exercises to get you using your coding tools in conjunction with your analytical skills to come up with just the right codes to describe any medical situation. In the process, you'll get all the hands-on experience you'll need to code medical insurance claims with confidence. By the end of this course, you'll know how to find your way through both the CPT manual and the ICD-9-CM manual, and you'll be well on your way to a career as a medical coder!

Course content © 2008 Portions by Penn Foster Inc. and Education To Go, a Division of Cengage Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or redistribution of any course material without prior written permission is prohibited.

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

You'll need access to both of the main medical coding books we'll use in this course: 
 
CPT Manual, Professional Edition (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, or 2011 edition)

ICD-9 Manual (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, or 2011 edition).
 

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Jennifer Della'Zanna.

“ I found this course to be very interesting and informative. I have been working as a unit secretary on the surgical unit of a local community hospital for 5 years and being able to approach the kind of data I am used to dealing with in a completely different way was very interesting to me. ”

“ If you are interested in learning about medical billing and coding, you will not find a better place to begin, nor a better person from whom to learn. Thanks to Jennifer I’ve found a new career. Her knowledge, gentle coaching and encouragement were key to building my confidence and my understanding of a complicated subject. Along with my highest recommendation and appreciation, I give Jennifer five stars!! ”

“ I have been a certified coder CPC with the AAPC for three years now. I have been a medical biller for 20+ years now; but, since I do not code per se, I felt a beginner’s course would help me keep up on coding. Thanks, the class did do this for me. ”

“ I wanted to thank you for the way you conducted this coding class. You made it fun and intriguing. There were some obstacles, but they were challenging to jump. ”

“ Thank you for your expertise and professional organization of such a course. I have found a "remote" job from an insurance company. A RN adjudicator is mentoring me. I am so excited. ”

“ Thank you so much, I have spent a lot of money on other courses and did not learn as much as I did in this class. ”

“ Your teaching method is EXCELLENT and very easy to understand! I have two friends in our church that are taking this course from other institutions and they have been with their course close to 18 months and one has graduated and last week after the 2nd lesson I was able to help her understand the Superbill and where to place the different codes correctly. I am enjoying this class very much and looking forward to what more you have to teach me. THANK YOU! ”