AAPCReviews of aapc.com

I took the AAPC training for coding and paid for my exam which I was told could be taken at home. AAPC uses a website you have to download to access a proctor that will run the test. The day of the exam this website did not work and I was unable to connect to a proctor. I explained this and was told that it was my fault and I have to pay again to take the certification. So they robbed me of the attempt I already paid for and asked me to pay again. This is an unethical way to run business.

Absolutely horrible business and should be shut down!!! They offer no assistance if you have questions or concerns. This course is a money pit and I wish I had seen these bad reviews before I wasted over $5000. I think the tests are rigged so you fail and have to spend more money. The membership fee is ridiculous! I’m a nurse and my license renewal is less than $100 every TWO years. This place makes you renew yearly for $200+. That’s a joke!!

AAPC is horribly unresponsive. I have reached out for help over the years and am consistently ignored. I have been reaching out for 10 months for a benefit of my membership and still nothing. I even reached out to the CEO. I have paid a lot of money over the years in dues, membership fees, CEUs, etc. Are they trying to save money by not honoring the membership benefits. It appears they could care less about their members. Keep paying that money!!!

Do not get a medical coding certification with AAPC. They were nothing but a pain to communicate with. Their admin processes seem to be very disorganized. I got a mailed certificate that I’d finished the course but no certificate that I had passed my exam and was certified in coding. When I emailed to ask for one, the reply implied that I had already gotten one and it seemed snarky. The Practicode module seemed like a great tool for getting more education but it’s horribly flawed and actually useless. The site advertises that the training courses count toward CEUs but did not add the very important detail that it only counts if you were already certified before you take the course. Don’t be fooled by the “sales” they have going on. They have a different one every month. Their costs are always “discounted”. I wouldn’t say the cost was worth it but I was already moving into medical coding. I wasn’t trying to get into the field with zero contacts or experience and I just needed a certification. Go somewhere else to get your training. A local college maybe. You do not want to deal with this organization and the people who work there. I found them unhelpful and rude. Or better yet just buy the code books and study on your own before taking the exam at AHIMA or AAPC.

I took an Examity exam two days after registering for the exam. There was an indication that an external webcam would be required for the exam in the email instructions but this information was not provided when choosing to sign up for the at-home option (instead of taking at a testing center). In essence, AAPC would require me to buy an external webcam to take a test at home. Not everyone owns an external webcam. They refuse to provide any refund. This is theft. They took $399 from me for an exam that they wouldn't allow me to take because I didn't have enough time to buy an external webcam, which also would have cost extra money. AAPC is a sleezy organization and I refuse to buy any more products from them.

I do medical coding and billing without being certified. Just figured I might as well get certified right. Well when i started the process, added the CPC course to my cart and was checking out I saw that you have to pay EXTRA for your books to get here on time or else you won't get them all at once! They will come separately and in different MONTHS! Unless you would like to pay extra for shipping for them to get here in the next couple of days! I am not talking about a fee of $10-$20, no they are charging up to $116 extra for fast delivery and that's just for ONE book that is not including the other two which by the way you will also need to pay a high fee for delivery! They say they are giving you a discount but they will charge you an extreme fee for just shipping your books on time or else you won't even have them when you start your course which you will end up paying up to $3,000. They are not giving you a discount in the end they are just playing the game of scamming you and making you believe you are getting a discount. Seems like they are learning from health care insurance in the scamming people part indeed. By the way my coworkers who are certified through AAPC say that they ALWAYS have promotions and discounts! If that is the case then it could be that's the reason they charge so much for delivery. They have to make up for the "discount".

AAPC needs to be shut down. They promise new skills, support and a program that will result in a 50k job. I was interested in the Billing program only, yet I was told I needed to complete three prerequisites(first), then I could enroll in Billing...but then I also had to enroll in the Coding program to ensure the guarantee of a job. Long story short, it was all a lie. The market is saturated with AAPC "graduates" however companies will not hire without experience. Their materials are full of errors and they do not follow their own policies. They do not and cannot stand by their own product. Their lack of integrity and accountability is disgusting.

I really wish I had read reviews before completely wasting so much money and time. I wasted $5,000+ on a worthless certification that has gotten me nowhere and done nothing for my career. It is borderline false advertisement on the AAPC website... they claim it is so easy to get hired and even display a couple of reviews saying how fast they got hired after getting certified. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. People hiring for medical coding jobs 99% of the time will require a minimum of 1-2 years coding experience and will not accept CPC-A, only CPC. The job market is flooded with apprentices, but there's an extremely limited amount of jobs that are willing to hire them. When there is that rare job willing to hire CPC-A's, there are literally hundreds of other applicants applying for the same job. The CPC program teaches you how to pass the AAPC's CPC exam very well, but completely fails at teaching how to do real life medical coding without multiple choice questions, and leaves important subjects out. Until I got to Practicode, I realized I actually didn't really know what I was doing. I think people hiring for these medical coding positions are aware of AAPC's failure to teach all of the necessary knowledge required to do the job well, and that is why there are barely any jobs willing to hire a CPC-A with no professional coding experience. Also, AAPC requires you to pay a YEARLY MEMBERSHIP FEE of around $200 to keep your certification active, even if you're only a CPC-A and haven't been hired yet. They will send you so many emails reminding you to renew your membership, but couldn't care less about helping you get your first medical coding job as an apprentice. TL;DR: It's extremely difficult to get hired as a CPC-A without experience. AAPC doesn't teach you all that you need to know to do the job well, and they require a $200+ yearly membership fee. Save your money and time, and don't waste it like I did on anything from the AAPC!