For the vast majority of this Section, we’ve discussed the AAPC’s CPC exam, which certifies individuals who are working in medical coding. However, the AAPC offers far more than the simple CPC exam. There are a number of variations on the CPC exam, each of which certifies a person to work in coding for a specific field of medicine. The AAPC also offers a professional billing certification for those individuals who want to work on that side of the reimbursement cycle.
This test is known as the Certified Professional Billing exam, or CPB.
The CPB exam is comprised of 200 multiple-choice questions, and takes five hours and 40 minutes to complete. The test costs $260 for AAPC members and $300 for non-members.
Like the CPC, the CPB will test you on the entirety of the billing process.
To pass the CPB, you’ll need to be familiar with
- Types of insurance (44 questions)
- Billing regulations (25 questions)
- HIPAA and compliance (10 questions)
- Reimbursement and collections (28 questions)
- Billing (28 questions)
- Coding (15 questions)
- Case analysis (50 questions)
As you can see, coding does pop up on the CPB exam, but the majority of the test is devoted to how billers interact with insurance payers. You’ll need to know the ins and outs of managed care, Medicaid and Medicare, how to format and create claims, how to adhere to the various billing regulations established by HIPAA and other bodies, and lots more. The Case analysis questions will present you with source documents that you must analyze to determine the correct answer, not unlike the case studies questions you’d see on the CPC.
To learn more about the CPB exam, visit the AAPC’s website.