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I did it! I enrolled in Andrews - Squarepeg

Posted: Mar 05, 2012

for medical coding. I'm excited and a little nervous. Looking forward to getting started.

Good for you! - Sue

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I've heard so many good things from students who have gone through Andrews. One of these days I want to enroll for coding too, but I haven't done that yet. (Gotta do something different than MT/SR). Good luck to you!!!

Very good idea. It's also normal to be a little nervous. - AL

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Good choice! I think it's even a good thing to be a little nervous. It keeps you on your toes. At least that's how it works for me. Can't wait for you to get started so we can get to know you. See you over there!

You with Andrews too? - Squarepeg

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I'll see you over there.

Squarepeg - DM

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Good for you and how exciting! I have also been seriously considering enrolling at Andrews. I'm not sure what's holding me back but your post just may help me make up my mind. I look forward to future posts from you letting us all know how you're doing! :)

How to make up my mind !!!??? - jan2

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What's holding me back is that I'm 66. Will I be hired at 68? Will my money spent be wasted. I have just a small amount of money; should I hold onto it to pay my bills (no retirement fund). No job for a year now.

The way I would answer your question - See message

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People all over the country are in tough situations like that because of the economy. The question I would ask you is, are you going to have to work? If so, get the skills so you can be a credentialed coder. That gives you the best chance of getting and keeping a good job.

If you are going to retire and not work, I wouldn't do it.

Credentials mean more than age in coding jobs, but we all know that some people who do the hiring discriminate for all sorts of things. Nobody can tell you that there will be the exact job you want, but you'll be much more likely to find the closest thing to it if you have the skills.

The way you answered my question - jan2

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was so very helpful, thank you. I do believe because of that, I have made my decision to apply at Andrews! I said to myself my money is going to run out in 2 years if I continue to find no work. My money is going to run out in 2 years if I study coding and billing, the only difference being that I may have a shot at a good job, and since I thoroughly enjoy studying and learning something new, I have enjoyed myself during those 2 years and have not been bored out of my mind with nothing to do but apply for jobs with no response and sit here frustrated and not being able to get out of my own way! At the end of the next 2 years, yes, I may have to sell my little cabin and may have to get state assistance and that's okay; it's what I planned to do. If I at that time have coding and billing credentials I may just have a shot at a good job. Either way I'll still be 68 and broke, but with having studied there just might be a different outcome. Thank you again.

Reframe your time estimate - Coder

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Two years? Why that long? I think you may just be assuming 2 years because . . . what? Community colleges take 2 years?

They take that long because the sequence of classes runs that long and because classes have to accommodate even typically slower students. Hence, they run for a semester, the semeters or quarters add up, and summers fit in, and then it is 2 years.

Because you are an MT, you already know a lot of the material. You are also not working. Instead of having only 10 to 14 hous a week to study, you have 40 plus 14. You can thus do it at least 3 times as fast. 14 x 3 = 40. Add another 14 and you have 4 times as fast.

To me, it seems that you could do this in 6 months. I'll bet that you could pass the CPC exam as soon as you finished the outpatient part, too.

Work expands to fill the time allotted for it. If you think you have 2 years, you will take 2 at a minimum. If you intend to take 6 months, you will take 6. Six is a reasonable goal. Even if it takes a few months longer, you will still be way ahead.

I think you're an angel - nm

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nm

@Coder, Andrews students: How long do you think it would take - StudentOfLife

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for a person working full-time and studying 12-14 hours a week to get through the outpatient section? The thought had never occurred to me that I could take the CPC and be out of MT completely even before I'd finished the whole program. JOY. I am giddy at the thought! I feel like this is Shawshank Redemption.

On the Coding Corner MT blog, that woman said she finished module I (of IV) in a month, but I don't know how much she was working at her J.O.B., and I don't even know what "module I" entails (LOL). She did say she knew it was going to go slower from there on out as she was hitting new-to-her material now in module II.

I think it is up to you. - Coder

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Well, I'm not sure what is in Module 1, either, but I think they recently streamlined the course. I believe that M1 is med terms, ICD-9, A&P, and CPT. You should have a handle on med terms and much of the A&P.

I believe that you have to plan your studies to make them FIT the time you have. I get nowhere if I just plan to study whatever I can get done. It just never gets done. The only way it works for me is to schedule Chapter 2 on Tuesday from 6 to 8 and make an appointment with myself to do it. And then sit there and do it like a fire alarm is going off and I have to finish before I can escape.

Too tired? Aren't we all! Take a nap. I schedule study sessions at Chick Fil A, where there is free wifi and they will wake me up when I fall face first into my salad. I'm too embarrassed to do that so I stay awake. I also use the pot roast method. I stuff a chuck roast in my Emile Henri glazed clay dutch oven, the only thing I trust for this, toss in some carrots and celery, some red and black pepper and whatever herbs, pour over some olive oil and Smithwick's dark ale, and put it in my gas oven at 250 for about 4 hours. It is like a crockpot only the results are better and it is far more dangerous so you don't dare go to bed. If you only want to study for 2 or 3 hours, use chicken or a pork loin.

Other tactics include studying while you do laundry, standing up at the dryer. You have to finish before the clothes do. In fact, standing up makes for very efficient studying. So does studying in a college library, if you can get into one. You do not want to look like a slacker, so you get with it. Same for MacDonald's and CFA, where there are lots of kids--you don't want to give bad example.

One nice thing about Andrews is that they use actual books. You can take them anywhere, write in them, spread them out on a table. Much better than online screens. Take notes. Outline the material. Look up Cornell notes and practice them before starting school. Turn the material into recipe cards. What is the recipe for doing this? Make cheatsheets. Pretend you will have an exam and write out what you need to know. Reduce it to one side of a page, then to a half page, then a 4 x 6 card, then a 3x5. Don't just write smaller--write less. If it is coding info that you do not want to forget on an exam, reduce it to minibits and pencil it int your code book in a place where you will be sure to see it. Next to the code or instruction, in the index, etc. (Yes, it is ok to do that. You just cannot copy big chunks.)

Some people do not like outlining. Maybe mindmapping would be better for you. There is an article in Wikipedia. Use colored pens.

Some people study better with the smell of books, chalk, that Bic stick pen smell, white paste, construction paper, or crayons. If mimeograph smell does it for you, see if a whiteboard marker will do. Seriously, a couple of crayons in a Hello Kitty pencil case can go anywhere and work wonders. (You can tell crayons are my favorite. Genuine Crayola, of course.)

You are on your own if your trigger smell is that stuff the janitor puts on throw-up.

Where there is a will, you will find a way. You have to develop a passion for this. I realize your current situation might be a little grim, but you have to get out of that place and into excitement and passion. Whether it happens naturally or you have to trick yourself with crayons doesn't matter. You just have to get into study zone armed with a schedule and you can make headway.

Andrews has no busywork, by the way. Everything they ask you to do has a purpose and direct bearing on learning now or future performance, if not both.

Coder, could I get your input on this - jan2

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Will coding go the way of transcription?

There's a company, A-Life Medical, Inc. that has technology called Life Code - computer-assisted coding using artificial intelligence capability. It has been around for several years,and they boast of having thousands and thousands of clients using it. Thanks.

Already been discussed repeatedly. Please read below and search the main board/nm - M

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x

P.S. The answer is no/nm - M

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x

Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning - !

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Maybe a short nap is in order.

Somebody - jan2

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I would like an answer. I checked archives and it looks like the answer is YES, not NO. How about a really current, updated answer and not one from the archives, please. It's important to me.

jan2 just participated in a thread about this (!) right below and - Coder already answered, at length

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NM

I've had it with MT Stars - jan2

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Bye!

I'm sorry, Jan, but you did. - Not meaning to be mean to you

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I can't figure out why you would post another new thread. How many times and in how many different ways can your concern be addressed? Especially since the very person you're asking already answered, at great length. I know you saw her answer because you participated in that thread!

If you are truly that worried about the future of coding, and your best research online still leaves you unsettled, why don't you call or meet the coding manager at your local hospital and see what she has to say?

Coders need to be able to work independently. If you need to have your hand held a lot, this might not be the career path for you. Again, not meaning to be mean...

Oh my God, go away! - jan2

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I have worked independently and successfully almost my entire life and have survived a brutal battle with cancer and came out even stronger than I was before the illness.

My question to you is why are you such an angry person? My advice to you is to begin to do a lot of soul searching.

I'm not angry, just at a loss why so many - re-repeat questions here

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:)

Clean your house NOW! - Coder

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You won't have another chance. ;)

Once your books arrive, you will be too engrossed in learning something interesting to get worked up about dust bunnies and such.

As others mentioned, it is normal to be a little nervous. Really, though, there is nothing to be nervous about. When your books arrive, you may think you need to panic, but that is just because you haven't been formally introduced. It is a lot like meeting the Queen--scary but then you find out there is nothing to fear.

Coding students at first do not realize that they do not have to memorize the whole code book. Learning coding only involves learning ABOUT the code book and learning how to USE it to find what you need. Kind of like a telephone book. You don't have to learn all the numbers in it, but just how to find a particular person or business so you can lift that number out and dial it.

A lot of the things coding students learn, like what medical records are, what happens when peope have doctor visits or get admitted to the hospital, what medical documenttion looks like, how to understand an operative note, and what different medical specialists do, are already familiar to you. You already know the language, too. You are way ahead already just because of that.

I am happy to hear that you made the big decision. Keep us posted on your progress. If you had enrolled anywhere else, I would encourage you to ask questions here, but I know the Andrews instructors will do a good job of answering yours.

LOL, that's exactly what I am doing as I wait for $$. :) - nm - MT

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nm

HAHA yeah you know, I hardly clean house anyway - Squarepeg

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So I figured if I'm not doing anything around the house, I'd might as well study for a career while I'm not doing anything around the house. :)

What finally motivated me to do this was a quote I saw on Facebook from the late Lucille Ball: "I'd rather regret the things I did do than regret the things I did not do". I realized I'd sat around for years and talked about doing something like this, but when was I going to actually do it? And with my current circumstances the way they are now, I needed to make a move and pronto. So I took the plunge. I feel like I'm finishing college.

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