ERG Medical Billing Certify
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Published openly — every module, every lesson

The full syllabus

Nothing hidden behind the sign-up: here is every module and every lesson in both diplomas — the complete U.S. revenue cycle, plus the 2026 layer (AI & automation, denial prediction, cybersecurity, analytics) that traditional certifications don't teach yet. All of it free, exam-gated, and ending in a verifiable certificate.

Medical Billing Diploma

20 modules · ~15 hours of lessons · quizzes gate every module · diploma final in Module 20 · enroll free

Modules 1–15 map to the domains tested by the CPB (AAPC), CBCS (NHA), and CMRS (AMBA) billing credentials — finish free, then sit the exam of your choice prepared. (Independent program; not affiliated with or endorsed by those organizations.) Part 4 goes beyond current exam blueprints: AI, security, and analytics.

Part 1 · Foundations

1

Introduction to Healthcare & the U.S. Revenue Cycle

~45 min
  • Why medical billing - and why it matters
  • The Four Ps - key players of U.S. healthcare
  • Providers, facilities & specialties
  • The main types of insurance (quick map)
  • Worked example & a real scenario
  • What is Revenue Cycle Management?
  • The core documents you'll live in
  • Intermediaries & how money comes back
  • HIPAA in one minute
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
2

Health Insurance Models & Payers

~40 min
  • Two big buckets
  • Medicare, Medicaid & friends
  • Private & employer-sponsored
  • HMO, PPO, EPO, POS, HDHP
  • Networks, referrals & prior auth
  • Who pays first?
  • Where payment is heading
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
3

Cost Sharing & Eligibility Verification

~40 min
  • How the pieces stack
  • The number that matters
  • Before the visit, every time
  • Portals, 270/271, phone
  • Don't mix them up
  • Prevent them up front
  • CMS-0057-F — the 2026 shake-up
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
4

Patient Registration & Data Capture

~38 min
  • Why registration matters
  • Demographics to capture
  • Get the policy right
  • Paperwork that protects the claim
  • Verify before you save
  • From front desk to billing
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)

Part 2 · Billing Operations

5

Medical Coding Essentials for Billers

~42 min
  • Two jobs, one chain
  • Diagnosis codes
  • Procedure codes
  • Beyond CPT
  • Medical necessity & edits
  • Documentation is king
  • CAC, autonomous coding & the biller's QA role
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
6

Claim Forms — CMS-1500 & UB-04

~40 min
  • Professional vs facility
  • Where the data goes
  • The part beginners miss
  • What facilities add
  • Forms map to the 837
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
7

Billing Platforms & Clearinghouses

~36 min
  • Where the work happens
  • One pipe to every payer
  • Catch errors before the payer does
  • Addressing the claim
  • Did it get there?
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
8

Claim Submission & Payment Posting

~40 min
  • Getting the claim out
  • A crucial distinction
  • How the payer decides
  • What came back
  • Record it accurately
  • Balance to the penny
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
9

Accounts Receivable & Denial Management

~42 min
  • Money owed to the practice
  • Prioritize by bucket
  • Know what you're holding
  • CARC, RARC & group codes
  • Correct, resubmit, or appeal
  • Measure what matters
  • The deadline that ends claims
  • Deadlines — and prediction
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
10

Enrollment, Credentialing & Provider Setup

~36 min
  • Two steps, often confused
  • NPI & taxonomy
  • The systems you'll use
  • Why timing matters
  • Re-credentialing & revalidation
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
11

Billing Provisions & NCCI

~38 min
  • The bundling rulebook
  • Bill the whole, not the parts
  • 59 and the X set — carefully
  • How many is too many
  • One fee, many days
  • POS 02/10, modifiers & the 2026 rules
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
12

Invoicing & Communication

~34 min
  • Bill the patient the right amount
  • Plain language wins
  • Statements to resolution
  • Apply it the same for everyone
  • Professional and private
  • No Surprises Act & Good Faith Estimates
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)

Part 3 · Compliance & Professional Practice

13

HIPAA, PHI & Information Security

~40 min
  • PHI
  • Two pillars
  • Use only what you need
  • Three kinds
  • When PHI is exposed
  • ERG's zero-tolerance rule
  • The 2026 Security Rule overhaul — preview
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
14

Regulations, Fraud & Abuse, Compliance

~38 min
  • Intent is the line
  • What you must not violate
  • Red flags billers must avoid
  • How organizations stay clean
  • Be ready, refund fast
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
15

Professional Practice + Final Exam

~45 min
  • “If you touch it, you own it”
  • Measure your own work
  • Continuing education & certification
  • Remote professionalism
  • Take the final
Key terms · Flashcards · Part 3 cumulative exam (80% to pass)

Part 4 · The Modern Revenue Cycle (2026)

16

AI & Automation in the Revenue Cycle

~45 min
  • The job is changing under your feet
  • From manual → CAC → autonomous
  • RPA vs machine learning vs generative AI
  • Where AI sits in every RCM stage
  • Human-in-the-loop: exceptions, QA, oversight
  • What AI actually delivers (and what it doesn't)
  • AI and PHI — the rule you never break
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
17

AI Denial Prediction, Prevention & Appeals

~45 min
  • Why denials are where the money dies
  • Reactive management → predictive prevention
  • What a denial-prediction model actually does
  • Generative AI drafts, humans decide
  • Read the denial like a professional
  • Medicare's appeal clock (miss it and the money's gone)
  • Triage by value × probability — not by age
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
18

Cybersecurity & AI-Era HIPAA

~45 min
  • Why security stopped being an IT problem
  • The 2026 Security Rule overhaul — status: proposed
  • Business associates — direct liability, offshore included
  • PHI and AI tools — what's allowed, what's a breach
  • The 8 habits that prevent most breaches
  • Incident response — report fast, hide nothing
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
19

Hands-On Practice Lab & Portfolio

~50 min
  • Employers hire proof, not promises
  • The clean claim — CMS-1500 from a mini-chart
  • Read and post an ERA — find the underpayment
  • The denial worklist — six claims, three lanes
  • The appeal letter — structure that wins
  • Eligibility + scenarios + flashcards
  • Package the proof (zero PHI, all simulated)
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
20

Analytics, KPIs & the Diploma Final

~50 min
  • You manage what you measure
  • Core KPIs and their 2026 benchmarks
  • Read it like a manager
  • The Pareto move: 80% of denials, 20% of causes
  • MIPS, MVPs & why quality data touches you
  • Leakage: the money nobody notices leaving
  • The diploma final — everything, cumulatively
Key terms · Flashcards · Diploma final exam → verifiable certificate

Start Module 1 free

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Medical Coding Diploma Coming soon

12 modules · terminology and anatomy through ICD-10-CM, CPT, E/M, HCPCS, NCCI and specialty coding

Part 1 · Foundations

1

Medical Terminology & Body Systems

~42 min
  • Coding is reading
  • Root + prefix + suffix
  • Roots you'll see daily
  • Modifiers of meaning
  • The big picture
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
2

Anatomy & Physiology Essentials for Coders

~40 min
  • The reference pose
  • Where is it?
  • Slicing and spaces
  • Mapping the abdomen
  • Cell to system
  • Read the op note
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
3

Healthcare Documentation & the Medical Record

~38 min
  • The source of every code
  • What's in a chart
  • How visits are documented
  • Where surgery codes live
  • …it wasn't done
  • Authentication
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)

Part 2 · The Code Sets

4

ICD-10-CM: Structure & Guidelines

~42 min
  • The diagnosis code set
  • 3 to 7 characters
  • Never code from one alone
  • Don't drop a character
  • The rulebook
  • Includes, Excludes1/2, NEC, NOS
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
5

ICD-10-CM: Conventions & Specificity

~40 min
  • One code, two ideas
  • Left, right, bilateral
  • Sequencing matters
  • Don't code 'rule-out' as fact
  • Encounters that aren't illness
  • The residual condition
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
6

CPT: Structure & Surgery Coding

~42 min
  • The procedure code set
  • I, II, III
  • How Category I is organized
  • Read the book's signals
  • What's bundled in a surgery
  • Step by step
  • Don't unbundle
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
7

Evaluation & Management (E/M) Coding

~42 min
  • Cognitive work, not procedures
  • The 3-year rule
  • MDM or time
  • How complexity is scored
  • Counting the day's minutes
  • Beyond the office
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
8

CPT: Anesthesia, Radiology, Pathology & Medicine

~40 min
  • Base + time + modifiers
  • Professional vs technical
  • Panels and repeats
  • A catch-all of services
  • Stay current
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
9

HCPCS Level II & Modifiers

~36 min
  • Beyond CPT
  • What each range covers
  • Coding what's administered
  • Two characters that change everything
  • Pricing before informational
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)

Part 3 · Compliance & Practice

10

Medical Necessity, NCCI & Compliance

~40 min
  • The Dx must justify the CPT
  • Correct coding, enforced
  • Bill the whole, not the parts
  • The lines you never cross
  • Stay clean, stay ready
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
11

Specialty Coding Overview

~36 min
  • Same rules, different terrain
  • How specialties differ
  • Each with its own edits
  • Authoritative sources
  • Your path
Key terms · Flashcards · Quiz (80% to pass)
12

Professional Coding Practice + Final Exam

~45 min
  • Code it right
  • Accuracy rate & productivity
  • CPC, CCS and beyond
  • Professional & compliant
  • Take the final
Key terms · Flashcards · Diploma final exam → verifiable certificate

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