Advanced Hospital Coding and CCS Prep

Certificate Program

The California State University, East Bay Certificate in Advanced Hospital Coding and CCS Prep prepares medical administration professionals for the American Health Information Management Association's Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) certification exam.

Cal State East Bay's program will appeal both to professionals who have experience with some aspect of facility coding and professionals whose experience has been with a physician office or billing service organization. Those with some experience will fill in the gaps in their knowledge and so acquire the overall mastery of facility coding required to become a Certified Coding Specialist. Those with a background working in medical offices or billing service organizations will broaden their career options by acquiring the hospital coding knowledge and skills necessary to be hired by most hospitals.

Offered in partnership with Gatlin Education Services, our program's online-only format makes it convenient for anyone in the world, not just those who live or work in the San Francisco East Bay Area.

Program Objectives

• To give graduates the knowledge necessary to meet the highest professional, legal and ethical standards required of a facility coder.
• To equip graduates with skill in interpreting health record documentation, using knowledge of anatomy, physiology, clinical disease processes and medical terminology.
• To provide graduates with the expertise in determining when additional clinical information is needed and in obtaining further clinical information to assist with code assignment.
• To provide graduates a strong understanding of reimbursement methodologies and documentation rules and regulations.
• To equip graduates with the ability to analyze health record documentation for quality and completeness of coding and evaluate health record documentation to substantiate claims processing and appeals.
• To give graduates an understanding of the CPT guidelines, particularly Evaluation and Management (E&M) and surgery coding.
• To provide graduates the skill necessary to interpret conventions, formats, instructional notations, tables and definitions of the classification system to select diagnoses, conditions, problems or other reasons for encounters.
• To give graduates the ability to determine proper use of Modifiers, CPT versus HCPCS Level II codes and Medical Necessity.
• To give graduates skill in sequencing diagnoses and other encounter reasons according to notations and conventions of the classification system and standard data set definitions.
• To provide graduates the ability to recognize when the classification system does not provide a precise code for the condition documented.
• To provide graduates familiarity with the current coding and reporting requirements for inpatient services.

Who Should Attend

• Medical administration professionals who seek to enhance and round out their facility coding skills so that they can increase their marketability.
• Medical administration professionals who seek to prepare for the Certified Coding Specialist certification exam.

Program Highlights