A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry


Penn Foster coding and medical billing program? - Undecided


Posted: Jan 29, 2015

Hello, Just wanting opinions/experiences with Penn Foster's Training Program Coding and Medical Billing. Thanks in advance.

I think you should try another place. Matchbook school. - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Penn Foster - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I didn't go to Penn Foster, but I am in some FB groups where I see a lot of students having trouble passing the CPC and they aren't even attempting the CCS. I guess it depends on what you want to do and how much you can afford. For me, I knew I wanted to pass both exams, so I was willing to invest the money in my future (with quite a few sacrifices to get there). In the end, it was so worth it!

penn foster - undecided

[ In Reply To ..]
Hi SM,

What school did you attend?

thanks

Why does PF appeal to you? - Curious

[ In Reply To ..]
Just curious ... what about Penn Foster appeals to you? Why are you considering it?

That is a serious question, too. It mystifies me that people are always on here asking about it.

Or, maybe I should ask instead what you think coding is and what you think the usual educational routes are. When I see jobs that require 2 and 4 year degrees and a CCS, and the CCS has a list of prerequisite college-level courses as long as your arm, I don't see how any of the Famous Matchbook Schools can provide that.

It amazes me even more that MTs, who should be aware of the long history of issues that matchbook MT schools caused, would consider them for coding.



Not that poster but - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I went to Andrews and they are worth every penny.

You cannot learn coding from those matchbook programs. You get what you pay for.
Andrews Cost - career change?
[ In Reply To ..]
It does seem that Andrews provides a very thorough education but at $4,500? I had looked at Andrews last spring when it was $3,800, so why such a huge increase in a year? I had contacted Linda Andrews last year with questions that I had on her program. She also provided me with a list of books that they use, and there are a lot of them. I then priced out the books on Amazon, and it came to much less than $1,200, which is the figure listed in their catalog.

I'm still thinking about changing my career from transcriptionist to coder, and while I feel that Andrews would give me a great education and prepare me to take the CPC and CCS exams, I'm just concerned at how much that education will cost.

You get what you pay for. - Coder
[ In Reply To ..]
Well, ok, you want to take the CPC and CCS exams. Any course will prepare you for the CPC. The CCS is something else. You need to decide what kind of coding you want to do and what is required to do it. If you are still focusing on how much Andrews costs, instead of on what it offers, you haven't done enough research.

You also have not done enough research if you cannot list the requirements for the CCS. Those matchbook schools don't qualify.

I am sure that you believe that every coding course teaches "coding," right? Of course, they will ALL teach the same thing, because they all teach "coding."

And, I'm sure that you believe that you can make do with a poor course because you're you and you know that you can try harder, make more effort on your own, etc. All to save that extra cost.

Well, they don't all teach the same thing and it is highly unlikely that you will be the fortunate soul to somehow get everything you need in spite of the course not teaching it. You will, instead, be here in 6 months to a year moaning about how you weren't taught inpatient coding, found out you can't qualify for the CCS, and didn't pass the CPC, and now have to take a review course for more $$$. In another 3 months after that, you'll be back moaning about how difficult it is to get a job in coding, and how horrible we were to recommend it, because you finally passed the CPC, but you aren't passing employer tests and no one will hire you with just the CPC-A.

If you think you can get the books for less, then ask Linda to reduce the tuition by 1,200 and get them on Amazon. Just don't complain when you find out that the books you got are the wrong year or wrong edition.

She can't get books second-hand on Amazon, you know. She has to get them from the publishers, and they charge what they charge.

I was surprised that she held out on raising the tuition as long as she did.

I think you need to consider something before you decide that Andrews costs too much. You get what you pay for. Sure, everybody else seems to charge less, but some of those places don't have certified-coder instructors. Some use home-made, error-filled pamphlets instead of books. Some teach only outpatient coding. Most of them, colleges included, don't teach enough inpatient coding to allow you to pass the CCS, and they very often don't teach the material that is required to sit for the CCS. And, if you added up all the parts and pieces of other programs, and the extensions, and the time you will waste figuring out everything on your own, and the time at colleges you will waste on filler courses and on waiting for semesters to roll around, you WILL find that Andrews is NOT the most expensive.

I understand that you are concerned about how much it costs. However, you need to look beyond the immediate present and assign some value to what you will be learning.

Truly, can you look at a career in which the average annual salary is about 45K and say that $4,500 is too much to spend to get there? I have seen people spend $29-39K on it and claim it was worth it. To me, $4,500 is a bargain. It's unfortunate that you waited so long and she had to raise the price, but it's still worth it.




Excellent post! - Laurie G.
[ In Reply To ..]
I, too, am amazed that the tuition has only recently been raised, especially considering the fact that she is including both ICD-10 and ICD-9 training.

I love every word of this post!
Cost - sm
[ In Reply To ..]
Are you aware that you can make a down payment and then pay monthly for two years with no interest? I paid about $100 a month. By giving up a few small things and using that money towards school, it really wasn't that difficult, although it sure was great to make that last school payment!

Regarding the tuition, I think it's been a very long time since there was an increase in any of the programs. For the education you get at Andrews, in my opinion, this is certainly reasonable.


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