I've been seeing posts on coding forum and groups about people highlighting and bubbling their coding books in preparation for exams. I know what highlighting means, but what exactly is bubbling? I am still a newbie and no where near taking cert tests, but I was wondering if this is something I should be doing as I go thru the course?
Thanks!
Heidi
It's something that isn't necessary, but helpful and it is done in the CPT manual. If you go on YouTube and search for Laureen Jandroep, she is the instructor that developed this and there are videos that talk about how to do this. Hope this helps.
Right, it's just a technique that helps you see what you need to see when you use the CPT code book. It can be helpful on exams. Of course, learning how to use the CPT code book and becoming very familiar with it helps a lot more, but this technique can be useful.
Bubbling just mean that you circle groups of related codes. When you get to the CPT module, you will learn that some codes all begin with the same main part; and each has a different ending. You circle the whole group that begins with the same main part.
123456 These codes all begin with this text; the first code says this.
123457 ; The second code says this.
123458 ; The third code says this.
You are going to draw a pencil box around those three codes. Then, you are going to highlight the crucial bit of the main text and whatever part of the rest of it that distinguishes each code from the other.
It is pretty much a no-brainer, and it's really easy to do, but you should not do it during module two. In fact, I would wait until you have finished module three and are preparing for a CPC exam to do this. If you do it too soon, before you have had a chance to figure out exactly what is important to highlight, you will end up making a horrible mess out of your codebook. You also won't learn as much during the modules as you should. You don't want to rely on a crutch too soon. If you do you won't learn to walk on your own.
I have seen people do this in a non-judicious manner. What was supposed to be a helpful technique made their books impossible to use. If you highlight using the wrong kind of highlighters, it will bleed through to the back of the pages. If you highlight too much , it will be worse than not highlighting at all. If you are not careful when you draw those boxes around groups of codes, you will not draw them accurately and you will just make your book a confusing mess.
Thanks Debbie and Instructor Peggy. It sounds like it could be helpful, but I think I'll leave my book as is. Too much highlighting and mark ups is very distracting for me. Thanks for helping me better understand what others on the forums are referring too!
I also read a lot about this on some facebook groups prior to taking the CPC. When I saw pictures of folks' books highlighted and bubbled, well, it just freaks my brain out. It looks MORE confusing to me. But on the other hand, some folks swear by it, and it really works for them. It really is up to the individual, but definitely not "necessary".
Just to mention, I have seen people using this since 2000, well before the Internet. In fact, I saw two different AAPC instructors suggesting it between 2000 and 2004, so I think it might be something that was at one time part of their instructor toolkit.