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Certified Professional Coder CPC® Certification Exam

Take the CPC Exam & Become a Certified Professional Coder

AAPC’s CPC certification is the gold standard in medical coding and represents world-class expertise that is highly sought and well compensated by medical organizations across the country.

Launch Your Career With the CPC Exam

The Certified Professional Coder (CPC) exam is the conclusive step to attaining CPC certification—renowned throughout the world of healthcare as the gold standard for physician-based medical coding. By passing the CPC exam and earning the right to append the CPC acronym to your name, you become a healthcare business professional recognized for reliable mastery of professional-fee medical coding.

Who Should Take the CPC Exam?

After you’ve trained with AAPC to become a medical coder—or if you have substantial medical coding experience—you should take the opportunity to gain certification by registering for the CPC test. Passing the CPC exam elevates your earning potential by more than $25,000 above annual salaries for persons without AAPC’s medical coding certification. And CPC salaries, averaging $57,201 in 2019, maintain a 9% increase each year. What’s more, the demand for certified medical coders continues to grow, with a 22% rise in jobs projected by 2022.

What Is the CPC Exam?

The CPC exam is a test of medical coding proficiency consisting of 150 multiple-choice questions that assess 17 areas of knowledge. Most questions present a coding scenario to test proper application of CPT® procedure codes, HCPCS Level II supply codes, and ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes—all of which medical providers use to submit claims to payers. During the test, you will reference approved coding books—the AMA’s CPT® Professional Edition, as well as your choice of ICD-10-CM and HCPCS Level II code manuals. You must complete the CPC exam within 5 hours and 40 minutes and answer 70% of the questions correctly to pass.