Slide 1 ___________________________________ Syd Stevens CPC, CIMC, AAPC Fellow ___________________________________ Syd Stevens, CPC, CIMC, AAPC Fellow, has been Practice Administrator for Midwest Nephrology Consultants since 2000. She has close to 40 years combined experience in the health care field and has worked in all facets of the health care industry – including hospital administration, managed health care, long term care, home health care, consulting, and physician office administration. Syd received her core coding certification in 1999 and a second, internal medicine certification in 2008. Recently she applied ___________________________________ for and was honored with the AAPC’s Fellow status. She holds an Associate’s Degree in Business. She is a member of WPS | Government Health Administrators POE AG (Provider Outreach Education Advisory Group) representing Nephrology practices for the J5 MAC Part B Physician Community. Syd also serves as a member of the CMS Region VII Medical Societies & Medical Group Managers’ Committee. She holds active membership In the RPA, ASDIN, the local and national MGMA Societies. Syd is Past President of the AAPC of Kansas City Chapter for 2016 and was Member Development Officer for the Chapter in 2017. As a featured speaker for both local and national coding and society meetings, Syd tries to bring humor and common sense to her peers to navigate the ever-changing world of healthcare. ___________________________________ She spends her days corralling eleven beloved providers assisted by her excellent business and clinical staff without whom she could never be successful. They are the real brains of the outfit. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 2 ___________________________________ Welcome To MGMA Northwest Missouri’s ___________________________________ Silver Anniversary Symposium We’re So Glad You’re Here! ___________________________________ WEDNESDAY – SEPTEMBER 26 TH – 2018 KCI EXPO CENTER 11728 NORTH AMBASSADOR DRIVE KANSAS CITY MISSOURI ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 3 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Getting Your First Coding Job: ___________________________________ ADVICE FROM NEW CODERS & FROM THE EMPLOYER’S PERSPECTIVE ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________
Slide 4 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Your “Virtual” Panel Today: ___________________________________ SARAH JENKINS, CPC-A | CHEYNET MCGUIRE, CPC-A | MARY BONINE – CPC SYD STEVENS, CPC, CIMC, AAPC FELLOW ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 5 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 6 ___________________________________ Sarah Jenkins, CPC-A • Sarah has a degree in Sociology and “fell” into the field of social work which she practiced for nearly 10 years before the decision to become a coder. • Her first job out of school was working for a community mental health agency and over the next ten ___________________________________ years worked for various social service agencies. • She met her husband, who is in the Army, and in 2015, they moved to Leavenworth, KS from Fort Benning, GA. While there, she worked in a military hospital in their department for Behavioral Health. Sarah admits she was completely burned out at this point in her social work career. ___________________________________ • While working in the hospital, she was introduced to coders and alongside providers that selected mental health codes for their services. From time to time she met with coders to discuss issues. She discovered she really enjoyed the administrative aspects of that job and found the coder’s world interesting. • When Sarah and her husband moved to KC in 2016, she took the big leap of faith and chose to not ___________________________________ look for a social work job, but instead, started studying for the CPC exam. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________
Slide 7 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 8 ___________________________________ Cheynet McGuire, CPC-A ▪ Cheynet worked as a certified Optician for 16 years. In addition to being an Optician for a large Optometry Group, she also worked with insurance and ___________________________________ billing there as well. ▪ After 16 years, Cheynet decided it was time for a change. She wanted to learn more about coding – not satisfied just doing the daily ins and outs of insurance and billing. ___________________________________ ▪ Before making the “jump” to become a coder, she made a job change and worked at St. Luke’s for a short stint which enabled her to go back to school. ▪ In August 2015 Cheynet enrolled at Johnson County Community College for the Medical coding certification program. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 9 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________
Slide 10 ___________________________________ Mary Bonine, CPC o Before becoming a coder, Mary worked for a retail store for 3 years, then went to work for Corporate Sprint for 2 years - eventually working a total of 5 years for Sprint in customer services and sales. ___________________________________ o Due to some health issues, Mary had to take some time off. She also got pregnant with her daughter in the meantime “. . . . total accident - but blessing at the same time.” She then decided to take a couple of years off work and be a stay-at-home mom. o When the time came to get back into the workforce, Mary decided she didn’t want to go back to ___________________________________ work for the communications industry – instead – she wanted to do something in the medical field. o Having learned a great deal [about the medical field] going through her own health battles, she decided to she wanted to get into the medical field and learn more. Mary’s interest did not lie in hands-on clinical: CNA, RN, etc., so she did her research and decided on billing and coding. ___________________________________ o Mary enrolled in Pinnacle Career Institute in the summer of 2013. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 11 ___________________________________ What Do These Coders Have In Common? ✓ Working in an industry or profession that was no ___________________________________ longer satisfying ✓ Current positions did not offer growth or excitement ✓ Experienced burnout ✓ They all were willing to “start over” ___________________________________ ✓ They were all “exposed” somehow to Coding ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 12 ___________________________________ What Is Sarah’s Advice? • “My advice when preparing for entering the coding world would be to talk to other coders! I didn’t ask enough questions or seek out enough resources when I made the decision to transition into coding.” ___________________________________ • “My transition became easier when I began coming to AAPC meetings and tapped into the community where I had people that could give advice and answer questions. I was often confused as to what they were talking about during those first meetings and felt completely out of my element, but eventually felt more confident and knowledgeable than I ever thought I would just a few months later!” • “I took my exam in December of 2016 and passed. I applied for and got my Claims Denial Associate ___________________________________ position with Meritas Health working in claim denials for pediatrics and hospitalists and was hired a few weeks after taking and passing my CPC exam.” • “I know and believe that I got my job so quickly after passing my exam because I connected to the local chapter and networked.” • “It didn’t really take much effort - I showed up at the meetings and listened.” ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________
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