AAPC Updates Requirements For Healthcare Certification Exams


As a healthcare certification body, if we’re not always looking for more innovative ways to test, then we’re going to be behind the times.

AAPC, the leader in training and certification for the business of healthcare, has made significant changes to the Certified Professional Coder (CPC) certification exam and other exams. The CPC assessment will now consist of 100 questions that must be answered in four hours instead of 150 questions in five hours and 40 minutes. Other exams were adjusted based on their current structure.

In a recent Facebook Live reviewing the updates, AAPC’s Senior Vice President of Product Raemarie Jimenez stated, “As a certification body, if we’re not always looking for more innovative ways to test, then we’re going to be behind the times.”

During the certification evaluation process, AAPC’s exams were compared to other high-stake exams in the healthcare and IT sectors. A third party was engaged to analyze the test data for benchmarking. It was discovered that AAPC exams were the longest in length and number of items on the exams by far.

A white paper was written that explains the process AAPC used to arrive at this outcome. Jimenez strongly suggested several times through the Facebook Live session that AAPC members and students should read the white paper to answer any outstanding questions they might have.

“We took great care to make sure we did not move in the wrong direction,” said Jimenez. “If AAPC certifications do not measure job competency, employers are not going to find them of value.”

The changes were implemented January 2022.

For more information, view the Facebook Live broadcast.

ABOUT AAPC

AAPC (aapc.com) was founded in 1988 to provide professional certification to physician-based medical coders and to elevate the standards of medical coding. Since then, AAPC has grown to more than 200,000 members worldwide and now offers 28 certifications encompassing the entire business side of healthcare.

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