CCA (AHIMA) study plan
CCA · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Health Record Content and Documentation
Map the required content of inpatient, outpatient, and emergency health records to the standards and accrediting bodies that govern them
Sequence the documentation lifecycle from registration and admission through record completion and authentication
Distinguish the documentation responsibilities of providers, HIM staff, and coding professionals
Identify the clinical, legal, financial, and research purposes served by the health record
Your checkpoint
A one-page annotated checklist of required record components for three record types, self-scored against your reference text at 90% or better
Health Record Content and Documentation & Clinical Coding
Detect documentation deficiencies in written scenarios and state the correct corrective action for each
Apply record-analysis criteria to judge completeness, timeliness, and authentication
Explain amendment, addendum, and late-entry rules and their legal effect on the record
Define the components of a complete diagnosis and procedure statement that a coder can act on
Your checkpoint
A written analysis of 10 documentation scenarios, correctly naming both the deficiency and the corrective action in at least 8 of 10
Clinical Coding
Apply ICD-10-CM chapter-specific guidelines to assign diagnosis codes for common conditions
Sequence principal and secondary diagnoses using official coding conventions
Navigate the alphabetic index and tabular list to reach the highest level of specificity
Draft a compliant physician query when documentation is ambiguous, conflicting, or incomplete
Your checkpoint
50 graded diagnosis coding exercises with a written rationale for each code, achieving 80% accuracy or better
Clinical Coding & Compliance and Reimbursement
Assign CPT and HCPCS Level II codes for common outpatient procedures and services
Apply modifiers correctly to indicate altered service circumstances
Compare prospective payment methodologies (MS-DRG, APC, RBRVS) across inpatient, outpatient, and physician settings
Trace how coded data moves from the record to the claim to the payment amount
Your checkpoint
A completed 60-question mixed coding and reimbursement assessment scoring 75% or better, accompanied by an error log sorted by failure category
Compliance and Reimbursement & Health Care Data
Outline the seven elements of an effective compliance program and how each operates day to day
Apply HIPAA privacy and security requirements to release-of-information and minimum-necessary scenarios
Identify fraud and abuse risk areas and the roles of RAC, MAC, and internal audit programs
Differentiate UHDDS, OASIS, and DEEDS by purpose, setting, and core data elements
Your checkpoint
A compliance case file of 8 disclosure and audit scenarios, each answered with the governing rule cited, scoring 7 of 8 or better
Health Care Data & Information Technology
Compute healthcare statistics including length of stay, occupancy rate, and mortality rate from raw data
Distinguish data governance, data quality, and data integrity, and name at least two measures of each
Describe EHR components and the functions of the encoder, master patient index, and computer-assisted coding
Explain interoperability, health information exchange, and the standards that enable them
Your checkpoint
A statistics worksheet with 10 calculations shown step by step, each followed by a one-sentence interpretation of the result
Information Technology & Clinical Coding
Apply security safeguards including access controls, audit trails, and encryption to protect health information
Identify threats to data integrity and the controls that mitigate each one
Re-drill ICD-10-CM and CPT areas flagged in earlier error logs
Complete coding sets under strict exam time limits
Your checkpoint
Two timed 25-question coding sets finished in 30 minutes each, both scoring 80% or better
Health Record Content and Documentation & Clinical Coding & Health Care Data & Compliance and Reimbursement & Information Technology
Complete two full-length timed practice exams and score each by domain
Re-mediate your two lowest-scoring domains with targeted drills
Recite key privacy, reimbursement, and documentation rules from a self-built one-page summary sheet
Your checkpoint
Two full practice exams scored 80% overall or better with every domain at 75% or better, plus a finished remediation log
Milestones
Week 2: Can identify and correct documentation deficiencies in 8 of 10 cold scenarios without notes
Week 4: Scores 75% or better on a mixed coding and reimbursement set, with an error log showing at least three named weak subareas
Week 6: Scores 75% or better on a mixed data, statistics, and IT set and can explain each missed item in one sentence
Week 8: Two full-length practice exams at 80% overall and no domain below 75%, with a remediation log documenting every corrected gap