SkyLock MediaCPC PrepStart with exam strategy, progress through each coding domain, and finish with integrated cases and a four-hour review plan. Free-preview members can open Lessons 5 and 10.
A logistics and strategy briefing for the CPC exam itself -- what AAPC membership requires and costs, how the exam is scored and timed, what CPC-A means if you pass without experience yet, and how to build a codebook and a clock strategy before you ever open a practice question.
The word-building system behind every medical term you'll code from, plus the body-systems map and positional vocabulary that later lessons assume you already have -- these two domains are worth only 8 of the exam's 100 questions on their own, but nearly every other domain's chart notes depend on reading this vocabulary fluently and fast.
How to choose the right modifier under time pressure, when an NCCI-bundled code pair can legitimately be split apart versus when that's unbundling, what a global surgical period actually bundles, and the fraud/abuse/medical-necessity basics every coder is responsible for -- together worth 10 of the exam's 100 questions, and a set of skills that resurfaces inside nearly every later Surgery, E/M, and case-scenario question.
The rules that govern how a diagnosis gets translated into an ICD-10-CM code: how the code itself is structured from category through the seventh character, how Excludes1 and Excludes2 notes control which codes can appear together, how sequencing and combination codes determine claim order, when laterality matters and when 'unspecified' is actually justified, and when a Z code belongs as the primary reason for an encounter -- five of the exam's 100 questions, and a foundation nearly every later coding lesson assumes you already have.
HCPCS Level II is CMS's alphanumeric code set for the equipment, supplies, drugs, and non-physician services that CPT was never built to describe -- a small domain worth only 3 of the exam's 100 questions, but one that shows up constantly in real DMEPOS and drug-billing claims once you're working.
E/M coding covers the office visits, hospital encounters, and consultations that make up the single most frequently billed service type in medicine, and it only accounts for 6 of the exam's 100 questions -- but its leveling logic (medical decision making versus total time) reappears as a sub-skill inside Surgery, Medicine, and case-scenario questions throughout the rest of the exam, so mastering it here pays off far beyond its own domain weight.
Anesthesia is the one CPT section priced by its own formula instead of a flat fee per code: base units plus time units plus modifying units, all converted into a dollar payment through a conversion factor. This lesson is intentionally compact -- Domain 17 accounts for only 4 of the exam's 100 questions, the smallest of the CPT-touching domains -- but the formula, the physical status and qualifying-circumstances add-ons, and the medical direction/concurrency rules it covers are tested with enough precision that a shaky grasp of any one piece can flip a calculation question.
The Integumentary subsection opens the six-lesson CPT Surgery block and covers skin, hair, nails, and subcutaneous tissue -- only 6 of the exam's 100 questions on its own, but the judgment calls it teaches (measuring an excised lesion before versus after excision, classifying a wound repair by layer and technique rather than length alone, and deciding when a repair is bundled into another procedure) are the same judgment calls that reappear, in different clothing, throughout Musculoskeletal, Digestive, and the integrated case scenarios later in the course.
The musculoskeletal surgery domain covers fracture care, arthroscopic versus open joint procedures, casting and strapping, spinal fusion, and joint replacement -- only 6 of the exam's 100 questions on its own, but the closed-vs-open treatment logic and approach-vs-injury reasoning taught here recur across every other Surgery subsection in Lessons 7 and 9 through 12, making this lesson's coding logic disproportionately valuable to master early in the Surgery block.
This lesson covers the 30000-series surgical procedures on the airway and heart -- bronchoscopy, cardiac catheterization, pacemaker/ICD placement, and coronary artery bypass grafting -- and is one of the most procedurally complex subsections in the entire Surgery block, worth 6 of the exam's 100 questions on its own but part of a six-lesson Surgery block worth 36 total. Every code family here rewards the same underlying skill: reading a dense operative note closely enough to identify every distinct component actually performed, not just the headline procedure.
The Digestive System surgery domain spans the alimentary canal from mouth to rectum plus the accessory organs -- liver, gallbladder, and pancreas -- and it is worth 6 of the exam's 100 questions on its own, but the decision logic taught here (scope extent, removal technique, and approach/conversion) is the same reasoning pattern the exam reuses across every other Surgery domain, making this lesson a template for the rest of the Surgery block.
This lesson covers the urinary, genital, and endocrine surgical coding logic tested on 6 of the exam's 100 questions: how a cystoscopy's base diagnostic code relates to the codes layered on when biopsy, stone work, stent placement, or fulguration happen in the same session; how stone size and location steer a urologist toward ESWL, ureteroscopy, or percutaneous nephrolithotomy; how partial versus total thyroidectomy and a concurrent neck dissection change code selection; how the transurethral-versus-open approach decision for prostate procedures mirrors the approach-driven logic that recurs across the whole Surgery section, extended here to the simple-versus-radical prostatectomy distinction and the exception robotic assistance carves out of that pattern; how hysterectomy layers approach (vaginal, abdominal, laparoscopic) and extent (total versus supracervical) on top of a same-session tubes-and-ovaries bundling rule that runs opposite to the thyroidectomy-and-neck-dissection pattern; and how adrenalectomy repeats the open-versus-laparoscopic and endocrine-classification logic already established for the thyroid, alongside the age-and-technique split that governs circumcision coding.
This lesson closes out the six-lesson Surgery block by covering the nervous system, eye, and ear -- a domain worth 6 of the exam's 100 questions on its own, but one where the eye and ear's paired anatomy makes correct right/left/bilateral identification the single most common way a coder loses an otherwise-correct answer, and where two of the highest real-world procedure volumes in the entire CPC exam (cataract surgery and ear tube placement) both live.
This lesson teaches a documentation-first method for radiology coding: identify the modality and body region, count documented views, determine whether contrast was used, and separate equipment-related work from physician interpretation when the record requires component reporting.
This lesson teaches coders to distinguish collection from testing, panels from individual assays, clinical laboratory work from anatomic pathology, and ordered work from performed and documented work while applying current bundling and laboratory rules.
This lesson organizes the broad Medicine domain around service families and recurring documentation decisions: product versus administration, diagnostic tracing versus interpretation, timed therapy units, recurring treatment sessions, and bundled components.
This lesson combines diagnosis, procedure, supply, modifier, and sequencing decisions in original chart-note scenarios. It teaches a repeatable evidence ledger so learners solve each layer independently before evaluating the final answer set.
This final lesson converts the course into an exam-day operating system: maintain current permitted references, navigate index-to-tabular paths, manage four hours across 100 questions, and use mock-exam evidence to target the last review cycle.
Every lesson's key terms and formulas, condensed into one page for a final review pass.
Every exam trap already written into the lessons, gathered in one place for a fast final-review pass.
The 2026 CPT, ICD-10-CM, and HCPCS Level II code-set updates, and why your exam always runs on the current code year.
CEU cycles, removing the Apprentice designation, and what actually happens next.