The medical decision making and time framework taught properly, then applied to real notes until your levelling is consistent — and defensible to an auditor.
Evaluation and Management coding is the most frequently reported service category in US healthcare, the most frequently audited, and the one coders get wrong most often.
The reason is that E/M is not a lookup. There is no index entry for "level four office visit." You read a note and make a judgement about the complexity of the medical decision making — or about the total time the provider spent — and then you have to be able to defend that judgement to an auditor who may disagree.
The revised E/M guidelines made this harder rather than easier. History and examination no longer drive level selection for most categories. Medical decision making and time do. That was intended to reduce documentation burden, and it did, but it also moved the entire basis of level selection onto a framework that many working coders have never been formally trained on. Most learned it from a webinar and a job aid.
This program teaches the framework properly. The three MDM elements and how each is scored. The data categories and how they combine. Risk, and the difference between risk considered and risk documented. Time-based selection and what counts. And then it makes you apply all of it to real notes, repeatedly, until your levelling is consistent and defensible.
The coders who get promoted to QA and audit roles are, more often than not, the ones who can defend an E/M level convincingly.
Evaluation and Management codes describe the cognitive work a provider does — assessing a patient, reaching a diagnosis, deciding on treatment — as distinct from procedures performed.
E/M covers office and outpatient visits, hospital inpatient and observation care, emergency department services, consultations, nursing facility services, home and residence services, critical care, prolonged services, and preventive medicine visits. Almost every provider encounter generates one.
Since the guideline revisions, level selection for most E/M categories is based on either medical decision making or total time on the date of the encounter, with the coder choosing whichever supports the higher appropriate level. Medical decision making is scored across three elements — the number and complexity of problems addressed, the amount and complexity of data reviewed and analysed, and the risk of complications or morbidity from patient management.
Is there a certification? There is no single standalone E/M credential. E/M is heavily tested within AAPC's CPC and AHIMA's CCS, and E/M auditing competency is assessed within AAPC's CPMA (Certified Professional Medical Auditor). This program builds specialty competency and strengthens your position for all three.
By the end of this program you will be able to:
At Codeshift Healthcare Solutions, our E&M (Evaluation and Management) Coding Training Program is designed to help medical coders develop the skills required to accurately review clinical documentation, select appropriate E&M codes, and apply current coding guidelines across different healthcare settings.
There is no standalone E/M certification. This program builds specialty competency, and that competency feeds directly into three places:
E/M carries meaningful weight on the CPC exam and is where many candidates lose marks. See our CPC Certification Training page for full exam details.
E/M appears within the outpatient portion of the CCS exam. See our CCS Certification Program page.
the program ends with a competency assessment: level a set of unseen notes and produce a written rationale for each, scored against a model answer. This mirrors what employers test at interview for E/M and QA roles.
| Course name | E/M Specialty Training |
|---|---|
| Outcome | E/M coding and auditing competency |
| Feeds into | AAPC CPC · AHIMA CCS · AAPC CPMA |
| Duration | 30 Days |
| Mode | Online & Classroom (Chennai) |
| Languages | English / Tamil |
| Materials | CPT Professional and E/M guideline materials |
| Assessments | Module tests, blind levelling exercises, final competency assessment |
| Practice | Real de-identified notes across multiple specialties |
| Prerequisite | Working ICD-10-CM and CPT knowledge |
| Certificate | Codeshift course completion certificate |
Most E/M training hands you a grid and tells you to match the note to it. Grids fail the moment a note is ambiguous — which is most notes. We teach the underlying logic so that you can reason your way to a defensible level when the grid runs out.
Everyone levels the same note independently, then we reconcile as a group. Discovering that six coders assigned four different levels to the same note, and then working out why, teaches more about E/M than any lecture.
Assigning the right level by luck is worthless. We assess your written reasoning, because that is what an auditor will ask for.
The auditing module exists because the coders who move into QA and audit roles are the ones who can defend a level in writing. That is the career step this course is designed to unlock.
Yes — the course is built on the current framework, and we update materials each year as CPT and the E/M guidelines are revised.
Considerably. E/M carries meaningful weight on both, and it is a section candidates frequently underestimate.
Every category — office, inpatient and observation, ED, consultations, nursing facility, home and residence, critical care, prolonged services and preventive medicine.
Not an external one — E/M has no standalone credential. You receive a Codeshift completion certificate and a competency assessment result. If you want a credential in this direction, CPMA is the natural target.
No. AAPC and AHIMA fees are paid directly to those organisations.
Same syllabus, same assessments. Classroom in Chennai; online live, not pre-recorded.
Guideline updates, CEU guidance, recertification reminders and alumni network access — indefinitely, at no additional charge.
Read what Codeshift students have written about their training on Google, or watch our classes on YouTube.
Every course has a defined next step. Here is where you are, and what comes next.
Tell us your background and where you want to work. We will give you a straight assessment of which course fits — even when the answer is a different one.