Are You Being Compensated for Your Coding Certifications?

Howdy Coder Pro's!
We're furthering the conversation on certification overkill. I'm sharing a real life example in hope to shed some insight.

I decided to spice up the intro a little bit.


To learn more about medical coding, visit www.abrahammedicalcodingcoachl...

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time to take a coding break. Ring the bell, Welcome
back to another episode of the Coding Break podcast. I
am your host Tam Talk here to talk about all
things medical coding related. So on today's episode, I want
to further the conversation about certifications and credentials. How important

(00:23):
are they? Are they really necessary? And are they working
for you? So the first question would be are they
necessary for medical coding? Yes? And no? So Tam, what
do you mean yes to no? It's good to have
the basic certifications when it comes to medical coding. And

(00:46):
it also depends on what area or what type of
medical coding you're pursuing, such as are you doing facility coding,
are you doing profit or professional coding? And the difference
with profy, of course, is a professional as in you're
coding for the physician, the provider. Where it's facility coding
is you're coding for the hospital, the facility, whatever facility

(01:11):
that you're coding for. Some colders have both. They have
credentials for their profit as well as credentials for the facility.
And that's fine. And if we want to go a
step further, some coders have specialty credentials like they may
stumble upon a particular specialty such as I'm going to
say surgery, I'm say plastic surgery, radiation, oncology, something along

(01:36):
those lines. So they have credentials or specialized credentials in
those particular areas because it signifies that they are i
would say, considered subject matter experts in those areas. Now,
do you need to have at least fifty certifications? No,

(01:58):
and I'm speaking from my own personal experience, you don't
need fit these certifications. And honestly I didn't need my
specialty certifications. How I stumbled upon or how I obtained
my special certifications is I sat for the beta testing.
When this is like the pre rollout of the specialty certifications.
They were testing to see if they were if they

(02:20):
were i don't want to say warned or applicable, or
if they were necessary or maybe it was an idea
they were testing. And so because I sat as a
beta tester and because I passed, I was granted my
certification as a general surgery coder. Now I was opting
for going for more of the compliance or the evaluation

(02:41):
in management coding credential because at that time I was
a manager for an organization a compliance manager for a
healthcare organization at that time. And again I was a
healthcare compliance manager for healthcare organization prior to them having

(03:02):
beta testing. Okay, So unfortunately, when I sat when I
wanted to pursue that particular certification or beta test for
that one, it was already a field. So I just
went with the next best option of the ones that
were available, which was general surgery. And fast forward to today,
here we are. So I had that certification for I'm

(03:24):
going to say, maybe it's been over ten definitely over
ten years. I've had my surgery certification definitely over over
that amount of time of years. But I saw that
this said that I had been doing work, compliance work
in the audits and you know, managing prior to receiving

(03:44):
that certification. So again, from my perspective, it is not necessary.
And I have experience right and now as an instructor
because I am a credential instructor through the organized AAPC organization.
Is that more now if I want to teach, Yes,

(04:05):
you know, it would behoove any instructors to have some
type of licensing or certification to back up their training
or their education. Have I taught, have I trained. Have
I presented prior to having that certification or that credential? Yes?
And what I mean by teaching, like, of course, if
I work for an organization and they say, okay, your

(04:25):
role consists of you educating you know, the team. So yes,
that's where I got my practice, you know, creating presentations,
public speaking, you know, doing fact research, fact check research,
prior to rolling it out, presented it to my colleagues
or my teammates. So yes and no. But if you're

(04:49):
going to go to the masses to teach coding, yes,
I would highly recommend that you have some type of certification,
credential or licensing behind your name to verify or to
validate that you are legit that you can speak upon
the things the subject that you're speaking upon. Now, there

(05:11):
are other certifications, and I think again certifications is like
the new trend or the new wave. Everybody has a certification.
Everybody has a certification. Okay, so it is all certifications required?
This is my thought. No, all certifications aren't required, because

(05:35):
I think people are just grasping for something to generating
an additional stream of income, such as Okay, there's one
that I saw where people have a certification course for
not disclosing health care information right, okay for me, and

(05:56):
maybe my practicality is kicking in. I just know not
to talk about health care information right when it's not
required or I'm not supposed to talk about it. I
don't think I need a certification to keep my mouth yet.
So that right there, and then there's a certification for

(06:21):
waking up or something. I'm just pulling something out of
the air at this point. But you see what I'm saying.
People are creating these courses and these certifications just to
generate an additional stream income. And so as someone who's
shopping for certifications are looking to pivot, whether that be
in the medical coding industry or outside of the medical

(06:42):
coding industry, you want to be mindful of the source
who's offering that particular course or that certification. Is it
a reputable certification, Is it something that's going to be
recognized by employers? So yeah, so these are that you
want to, you know, pay close attention to, because here's

(07:04):
the things you don't want to waste your money. You know,
you have people who are reputable instructors, reputable teachers, reputable educators,
and people question spending money with them. So you have
to be mindful of the people who who aren't certified
to speak or to try to attempt to educate you

(07:28):
and swinder you out of your money, right, and they
charge thousands and thousands of dollars for that. And meanwhile,
the people who are legit or reputable or who have
the experience as well as the certifications or the licensor
licensor to back up their education or their training, they lose.

(07:51):
So yes, so you have to be mindful of that.
So again that's a yes. Again to answer that question,
it is just to know. So there was a question
that was supposed to me. Someone was actually shopping around
for a particular you know, a medical coding course and
and and wanted to know what I doult of that

(08:13):
course that I feel that that that particular company or
organization was reputable the educator. I don't know the educator
specifically or personally, but anything that is to me, and
again this is my perspective of anything that is in
line with the same organization that credentialed me, I would recommend.
I would say that they they are probably good to

(08:35):
go because one of the things that the organization does,
they they have a baseline or a template that you
can use as an educator to create your courses to
to to fall in line or to align with their
certification exam. And also their certification is internationally known, and

(08:56):
I say international internationally known. So the two that I
feel that are that I know for a fact, not
that I feel that I know for a fact, are
well known certifications to have. Either you're gonna be with
American Academy of Professional Coders, which is the AAPC or AHEMA,
the American Health Information Management Association. Again, that's a a

(09:18):
PC or AHEMA. Now there are some other ones that
are pretty reputable as well, but those are the two
main ones when it comes to like certification as a
coder or health information I'm expert that it's important to
that are I guess to say, we could say well
known or employees look for when they're uh seeking potential

(09:42):
applicants or potential hires. And so yeah, so I just
lost thought on my next question, but hopefully that answers
your question in regards to the credentials. And so again
I highly recommend that you shop around and before you
just jump on the trend of getting the certification. Is

(10:04):
it something that you know that you can use? Is
it something that pretty much asked yourself the question, are
you already providing the service or doing the work without
the certification? And if you are, is it really required? Again?
Is it really required? So there was an example of

(10:26):
I actually had a colleague who was, I guess, complaining
about their work. They pursued these certifications prior to you know,
they on their own personal time. They pursued these certifications
on their personal time. It was a personal desire that
they pursued these certifications, and so they secured a job

(10:48):
or role. However, the role did not require all of
the certifications, so the role only paid or compensated the
employee based upon what they required. And so the employee
was a little upset or complaining because they weren't getting
paid for all the experience or their credentials that they had.

(11:11):
And I had to bring it to that person's attention
that they're not paying you for that because they didn't
require you to have all of those credentials. You chose
to pursue all of those credentials, so it wasn't necessary
for you to have that. Now, if they if the
jobscription requires you to have all of those credentials, and

(11:33):
they're not paying you for it. That would be one thing,
but you having those credentials. That's just the same with
having a college degree and the job that you're performing
doesn't require the education or the knowledge from your college
degree or your certification. Is it really you know, are
they low balling you or is it that you just

(11:54):
you just want to get paid for that. So that's
a good example of certifications out of your personal desire
and then expecting an employer to pay you or compensate
you for your personal desires. That's not what they hired
you for. They hired you to do a specific task,
and they told you what the required requirements were. And

(12:15):
again I asked that employee, does the job that you're doing,
the duties that you're performing, require require all those certifications
and the responses no. So technically, when you look at it,
they're paying you based on what they require you to have.
They're paying you based on what they require you to have.
And so another thing too, So if a employer highly

(12:41):
suggested I'm an air quoting here hollly suggests that you pursue
a certification, it's just a suggestion. Now if you pursue it. Now,
here's the thing. Let me go back. If you're already
in the role and without it, okay, it's a highly
suggested you know that you get the certification. Now, if
it's a requirement or they're changing their policy and requiring

(13:04):
you to get it, then I also feel that the
employer should be required to pay for your certification, right,
your training and everything the upkeep of it, like the
ceu CMUs things of that nature. But if it's just
a highly suggested or recommendation of a certification and it's
not mandatory, then again it's up to you to get it.

(13:25):
Is it going to get you more money? Probably not.
It's just just makes you feel more competent or makes
the employerer feel like you are more competent in that
particular role. But if it is a mendatory requirement, then
it is an obligation or the duty of the employer
to pay for that training, to pay for that certification,
to pay for the upkeep of that certification. So there's that.

(13:50):
So that's all I have for this coding break as
it relates to coding credentials. So again, when you're pursuing
or contemplating and pursuing additional credentials, ask yourself those questions,
is it worth it? Can I perform the job without it?
Am I currently in the role doing the job without

(14:11):
the certification? Is an employee requiring me to get the
certification or highly suggesting that if so, then let them
pay for it. If not, then colde on. So that's
all that I have for this coding break. So the
bell is about terrain and it is so time is up,

(14:33):
and that's always cold on until next coding break. Toodles,