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Career Step or Andrews? - anon

Posted: Apr 17, 2015

Can anyone tell me the difference in the 2 programs? Will someone come out of CS ready to sit for the CCS/CPC? I know/hear on here that Andrews has the best, most comprehensive program but Career Step has a job placement program after graduation ...granted it is low-paying, but it is more like an internship for 13 weeks. After that you can get hired for $15-$17/hour or more.... However their program is almost half what Andrews is.... I just am trying to make the best decision for myself. I am ready to get started on something very soon. Just want to make sure I have no regrets on my education....

This is what Andrews lists as advantages - See message

[ In Reply To ..]
It depends on what is important to you. The most important thing to me is the fact that you qualify to take the CCS exam after graduating from Andrews.

When you write for more information, they have several things that they consider to be advantages. You might look at these and compare them to the advantages of any other school you are considering:

Advantages of Medical Coding Training Through Andrews School

1. Credentialed Instructors Who Know How to Teach.
2. Instructors have the credentials you hope to get when you graduate.
3. Professional-level books you will need to use when you take credential exams and employment coding tests.
4. Errors are explained so you know what you do right and can learn from your mistakes.
5. Course qualifies graduates to sit for the CCS exam.
6. School is licensed, for the protection of students.
7. There are no extra fees.
8. Teaches at the Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced Levels
9. Course Designed by Experienced Credentialed Coders
10. No Deceptive Guarantees and/or Promises

My Career Step Experience - Former student

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't anything about Andrews except what I have read here but their students appear to have great success at passing the exams and finding employment. I was enrolled in Career Step and my advice to you is to think twice about that one. Unless things have changed, they had no textbooks and it was all on line. The course materials were theirs and a lot of multiple choice quizzes and preprogrammed lessons. There were instructors available through a toll-free number but no one was assigned a one-on-one instructor. I'm a hands on learner and it didn't match my learning style very well. There were also errors in some of the information presented. I didn't finish because I got hurt and needed surgery late in the program but did not feel prepared to sit for an exam. I am actually thinking of enrolling in a different program and starting over. In regard to the job placement, that must be something new as it was never offered in my program. Good luck, think it through carefully before you do anything.

I considered both back when I was trying to decide - Andrews grad

[ In Reply To ..]
After weighing my options between CS, Andrews, and many others, I chose Andrews and I'm so glad I did! I'm not going to lie - Andrews is by no means an easy course and some days I was ready to throw in the towel! Well, thankfully I didn't. I passed both the CPC and the CCS, and I am now working as a coder.

What books did you use? - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
NM

question - anon

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I have read as a "selling point" to CS that they are AHIMA certified but Andrews is not. What exactly does that mean in the "real world"? Did it make a difference when you were job hunting? How long out of Andrews did it take you to find a job? Was it remote or at an office/hospital? How was the pay? I am so confused on what to do....

If you look at the web sites they teach at different levels - See message

[ In Reply To ..]
Most of the schools on the "approved" list teach at the CCA level. Andrews teaches at the CCS level. That is a huge difference. The CCS means you will have many more job opportunities in hospitals mainly. The pay is better. A CCA has a very tough time getting a decent job. Employers do not want a CCA because they know that they just had a little bit of coding and need to be taught how to code on the job. Nobody wants to do that.

What that means in the real world - Not a bean hill

[ In Reply To ..]
First of all, they are not "certified." The word for it is approved. Not accredited, not certified ... just approved.

That is not a recommendation or assurance of quality. It just means that the school said they met the requirements for teaching what was expected in the way they expected it.

It does not mean that schools that do not advertise they are approved are bad. A school might not meet administrative requirements, like not being a college that accepts federal financial aid, or be unable to afford becoming a "platinum donor" of AHIMA. Or, a school might not want to dumb down their curriculum to fall into line with the lower expectations for approved schools. Everyone thinks it means you can't teach less, but it also means you can't teach MORE.

It also says nothing about how well a school teaches. Or how many students finish or get jobs or KEEP them.

What matters in the real world? Your ability to pass certification exams and employment tests. One you have the CPC and CCS, there are very few employers who will stop to ask how you learned to code, except to say "My gosh, what school was that! They must be fantastic." I know, because that is how I got my job.

I do not know what you can possibly be confused about, anon. Did you compare anything about those two schools, or are you focusing only on price?

Andrews teaches everything required to qualify to sit for the CCS, uses reputable textbooks, does not teach with online screens, has highly qualified instructors, is unbelievably flexible, is unbelievably ethical, will work with you until you succeed, and graduates students who pass cert exams and get even hospital jobs, and even get remote coding jobs. They don't need to offer fake guarantees of anything.

That would be my choice if it were me, and it was. I would choose the same again.

thanks - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks, that is what I needed to hear. I was leaning more towards Andrews but a friend and coworker (former boss) chose Career Step and was telling me how much cheaper it is, discounts they gave for having been an MT (or in the medical field), etc., etc... and that is where my confusion came in.... mainly cost and time for completion (supposedly). But after my own research (and your confirmation..thank you!), I have decided that Andrews is the best fit for me. I want to graduate and pass the CPC and CCS and have a greater possibility for a remote coding job (my ultimate goal since I have been an MT from home for 14 years and still have small kids at home). Thank you again for confirming what I already knew in my heart. Now....how to pay for it is another story... Once I figure that out I will be ready to get started!

Cheaper-schmeaper! You gets what you pays for. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
It is a lot like shopping at the Dollar Store.

If you really got the same thing for less, that would be fine. But it isn't the same. And you can't tell until it is too late.

To me, Andrews isn't more ... Andrews is THE BARGAIN. It is a bargain because of what your income can be later on. You will recoup your expenses.

Hold a yard sale and sell everything that is not nailed down. Bake and freeze your famous casseroles and meals for friends and relatives. Wash cars on weekends. Clean a house or two.

Stop drinking soda, store-bought iced tea, and juices. Stop buying coffee out. Stop eating fast food. Stop eating cookies, pastry, cake, candy, and other junk foods. Put that money in your school fund.

If I cut out one latte a day, I can save 7.00. That is 35 a week. Lunch at work saves another 35. 70 x 4 = 280 a month. I can save another 2-4 a day eliminating soda, for 10-20. Another 10 for candy bars. Another 20 or 30 if I don't stop for fast food on the way home. That is about half the Andrews downpayment of 600.

Look at every penny you spend. Eliminate anything that is not strictly necessary. Figure out how much you saved. Put that money in your school fund.

Cable TV? Movies? Vacations? Whack them all out. You won't have time anyway.

Clothes? Shoes? Hair? NAIL SALON??? Makeup? Possible savings there!

Coding courses do not teach the same thing. - Andrews Grad

[ In Reply To ..]
Coding courses do not all teach the same thing, nor do they teach it to the same degree, nor do they teach it the same way or with the same success. You DO get what you pay for and the amount of time you put into it reflects what you get out of it.

In other words, an AAPC course costs less than 2000, but covers only one type of coding (outpatient or hospital ambulatory or inpatient) and does not cover any of the basic sciences that AHIMA requires to sit for their exams. That is fine if you want to go that route, just be aware of the limitations. One of them is that the recognized credential for inpatient coders is the CCS, which you will be ineligible to take.

Other courses teach coding in general, not breaking it down and and only covering it at a basic level. They may say they teach the basic sciences, but do so with online screens or booklets of watered-down material. You might pass the CPC but not be eligible for the CCS, and they may disguise this by saying you sure can, after you get two years of experience. They don't mention that you don't need a course at all if you have two years experience, or that the experience has to be in inpatient coding, and that you are unlikely to get hired as an inpatient coder without the CCS or other experience, so you are really looking at it being nearly impossible to ever attempt the CCS. Which is kind of sad, considering that inpatient coders make the most money.

You see? Sure, you can cut your cost in half now, but it is false economy because you will be limited in your job choices and earning potential. When you start out on a lower rung, you stay a rung lower.

And that is if you manage to finish the course at all. Look closely and you will see that job placement is never guaranteed. You have to finish the course first. Some schools have 90% dropout rates. Some schools have basically no tests until the end, then a big final. The failure rate may be very high on the final, for reasons you cannot fathom, forcing you to pay extra to retake it just to get a certificate of completion.

Did you wonder why a company would only offer an internship rather than a real job? It is partly to get cheap labor, but more because they are afraid to risk hiring from that school. If all you are qualified for is an internship, you were not fully trained. If all you can pass is the CCA, you were not fully trained. You have to take an internship because you can't get a real job.

Compare that with Andrews' grads, who have several remote coding companies which will give them real jobs.

You also need to consider that course completion times might not be realistic. A school's low fees and short time are can indication that they teach less, but might also be deceptive in that most can't finish in 4 months and have to pay for extensions. Extensions, along with extra charges for supplemental courses (AAPC's A&P, for instance) or hard copies of teaching materials, or instructor support, or exam retakes, are how cheap schools raise the true cost of the course. Amazingly, everyone who signs up believes they will never need to pay extra.

What you see with Andrews is exactly what you get. Everything is included. All books and materials, instructors, everything. No extensions are required. If you need to have surgery, they give you a leave of absence. There is no charge.

You also will not get to the end of the course only to discover that you can't pass the final. You will be tested all through the course. They will work with you until you get it. You will be ready for cert exams and employer tests. You will be ready to work.

Career Step - justright

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm taking Career Step now. It comes with 6 books, lots of reading, lots of homework, lots of online work, lots of test. While you don't get a one-on-one instructor, all instructors come from the field and are certified and can be reached Monday through Friday. It's an AHIMA approved program. As far as the internship program that's fairly new, your not guaranteed to get into that (as of right now they only take 10 people), you have to pass their assessment requirements and testing. One more thing, you will not be able to finish the program in 4 months unless you treat it like an 8-hour school day. If you take longer than a year, you'll have to pay for an extension. I find the program very intense.

Can you tell us what books they use? - Interested.

[ In Reply To ..]
I guess the 3 code books (ICD 9 or 10, CPT, HCPCS). What are the other 3?

Those 3 plus - justright

[ In Reply To ..]
Medical Coding Professional foundation, medical terminology, anatomy and physiology.

Authors and publishers? - Wondering

[ In Reply To ..]
Which authors and publishers?

Coding Books AMA and Optum - justright

[ In Reply To ..]
Med term (Betty Davis Jones) Delmar Cengage, and the other two are Career Step book version of the online modules.

What we used - Andrews grad

[ In Reply To ..]
At Andrews, we used Optum ICD-9 Professional for Hospitals, AMA CPT, HCPCS, AHIMA ICD-9 and CPT coding textbooks, Faye Brown (the "gold standard" coding book published by the American Hospital Association), AHIMA Clinical Coding Workout, Chabner's Language of Medicine, and textbooks for pathophysiology (huge), Asperheim's pharmacology, lab and diagnostic medicine, and reimbursement that I can't remember the names of. The reimbursement one included medical records, documentation, law, insurance, federal programs, and everything surrounding coding and billing. There was probably another one or two that I forgot--it has been a while.

They were all what you would use at a university. Nothing was made by the school.

The Main Thing and Other Great Things - The Big and Little Differences

[ In Reply To ..]
Preparing for the CCS is the big difference, of course. Having college-level books and credentialed instructors giving detailed individual feedback is a big point for Andrews. We all know that and talk about those big points all the time. There are some little ones that are important too, like the ability to make payments without interest, with no extra charges ever, even if you need extensions. It is also so practical not to have to fight traffic, just turn on your computer, get your books out, and start learning. The flexible schedule can't be beat.

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