AAPC Certifications: Every Credential AAPC Offers and Who Each Is For

AAPC was founded in 1988 as the American Academy of Professional Coders and now uses AAPC as its official name.

Its certifications map to the jobs in a revenue cycle: coding the record, billing the claim, auditing the work, managing documentation, running compliance and running the practice.

At the center sit the four main core coding certifications AAPC names — CPC, COC, CIC and CRC — with the CPB alongside for billers.

Around them stand CPMA for auditing, CDEO for documentation, CPCO for compliance and CPPM for practice management.

As of October 13, 2026, AAPC's certifications page listed a catalog that breaks into six groups.

• Core coding: CPC, COC, CIC and CRC.
• Billing and practice management: CPB and CPPM.
• Audit, documentation and compliance: CPMA, CDEO and CPCO.
• Specialty: a list running from CASCC to CUC — CEMC, CEDC, CGSC, COSC, COBGC and more.
• Newer additions: CPC-M, RCMS, CVBA, CDEI and CPMS.
• Instructor: CPC-I and the rest of the -I series.

Exam pricing splits by tier.

Core exams cost $425 for one attempt or $499 for a two-attempt voucher, and specialty exams $325 or $399, as of October 13, 2026.

These are certifications, and BLS's licenses, certifications and registrations section for medical records specialists describes only voluntary, employer-preferred certification.

BLS says certification may be required or preferred and that employers may prefer to hire certified applicants or expect certification shortly after hire, and AAPC says no degree is required for medical coding even though certification and training are typically preferred by employers.

If you are still deciding on the work itself, start with the medical coder career guide, then come back here for the credential.

AAPC's four core coding credentials split by the kind of record you code — physician and outpatient services, outpatient hospital and facility services, inpatient hospital and facility services, and diagnosis coding for risk adjustment.

The CIC and the CRC are stand-alone certifications under AAPC's rules: neither requires holding a CPC, COC or CPC-P first, and the CPC itself has no degree or work-experience requirement to sit.

CPC.

AAPC describes the CPC as covering ICD-10-CM, CPT and HCPCS Level II across outpatient and physician services.

The exam runs 100 multiple-choice questions in four hours, and a passing score is 70%.

Pass the CPC without two years of coding experience and the credential arrives with AAPC's apprentice designation attached, as CPC-A.

AAPC's Exam Agreement applies the A to the CPC and COC exams only — the CIC, CRC and CPB carry no apprentice version.

Four paths remove the A: two years of verified coding employment, one year of employment plus education, Practicode plus an 80-hour coding course, or AAPC's Job-Ready Program.

Coding experience gained before the exam counts toward the requirement if your employer verifies it.

COC.

The outpatient hospital and facility credential.

AAPC says the COC validates outpatient hospital/facility coding, including APC reimbursement and same-day surgery, emergency department and hospital outpatient clinic services.

Its exam runs 100 questions in four hours and ends with 10 medical-record cases.

AAPC itself refers to the COC as "formerly CPC-H."

CIC.

The inpatient counterpart, covering inpatient hospital/facility coding with ICD-10-PCS procedure codes and ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes.

Its exam is the outlier: 40 multiple-choice questions plus 7 inpatient cases with fill-in-the-blank questions, four hours, passing at 70%.

CRC.

The risk adjustment credential.

The CRC exam focuses on ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes used for risk adjustment coding — 100 multiple-choice questions in four hours, ending with 10 diagnosis-coding cases, with an ICD-10-CM book as the only allowed code reference and a 70% pass mark.

All four sit in AAPC's core pricing tier: $425 for one attempt or $499 for two, as of October 13, 2026.

Two credentials cover the billing office and the manager's desk.

CPB.

AAPC names the CPB as its certification for billers.

The exam runs 135 multiple-choice questions in four hours and includes 34 cases, with AMA CPT Professional plus ICD-10-CM and HCPCS books allowed.

Its topic list reads like a biller's job description: insurance plan types, LCDs and NCDs, HIPAA, the False Claims Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Stark Law, the claim life cycle, denial resolution and medical coding.

AAPC draws the line between the courses behind its most popular first-certification options this way: the CPB course emphasizes billing and only lightly touches coding, while the CPC course teaches physician-office coding.

CPPM.

The practice-management credential — AAPC's CEU policy reserves 16 practice-management CEUs per renewal for CPPM holders.

The exam runs 135 multiple-choice questions in four hours with no physical references allowed; the materials live inside the exam itself.

Both are stand-alone certifications under AAPC's rules, and both price at the core rate: $425 for one attempt or $499 for two as of October 13, 2026.

Three credentials cover the checking side of coding: auditing the charts, sharpening the documentation and running the compliance program.

CPMA.

The medical auditing credential.

The exam is open book, with 100 multiple-choice questions in four hours and a 70% pass mark; AAPC recommends at least two years of coding experience before you sit.

CDEO.

The documentation credential — AAPC describes it as validating expertise in outpatient clinical documentation improvement.

Its exam runs 100 questions in four hours with 70 correct needed to pass, and AAPC recommends two years of coding experience and an existing coding certification before attempting it.

CPCO.

The compliance credential.

Its exam runs 100 questions in four hours, and no physical references are allowed — materials are provided within the exam.

AAPC recommends two years of health care work experience.

Each carries its own renewal load: CPMA, CPCO, CPPM and CDEO holders must include 16 credential-specific CEUs per two-year cycle — auditing, compliance, practice management and documentation respectively.

Beyond the core, AAPC's certifications page listed a specialty catalog, a set of newer credentials and an instructor track as of October 13, 2026.

The specialty credentials listed were CASCC, CANPC, CCC, CCVTC, CEDC, CEMC, CFPC, CGIC, CGSC, CHONC, CIRCC, COBGC, COPC, COSC, CPCD, CPEDC, CRHC and CUC.

Specialty exams price at $325 for one attempt or $399 for two, as of October 13, 2026.

A few show the pattern.

The CEDC — Certified Emergency Department Coder — runs 100 questions in four hours, with AAPC suggesting two years of ED coding experience.

The CEMC runs the same format, with CPT, ICD-10-CM and HCPCS books allowed and two years of E/M coding experience suggested.

The surgical trio — CGSC for general surgery, COSC for orthopaedic surgery and CASCC for ambulatory surgery centers — each run 100-question, four-hour exams, and the COSC also allows both volumes of the Orthopedics Coders' Specialty Guide as references.

The same catalog pass listed newer credentials.

CPC-M is a master-level exam of 70 questions in four hours that requires a minimum of five years of hands-on professional-fee coding experience, and the page also lists RCMS (Revenue Cycle Management Specialist), CVBA (Certified Value-Based Administrator), CDEI, and CPMS, a medical scribe credential.

Two prices would not resolve when we checked.

AAPC's own pages disagreed on the CIRCC: $400 for one attempt on the exams page, against $425 on the CPC and CIRCC pages.

The CVBA also conflicted, listed at $399 on its exam page but among the $425 core exams on the CPC page.

One more name can surface in AAPC's policy language: CPC-P.

It did not appear on the certifications list when we checked, and our research could not confirm its current status, so check with AAPC before planning around it.

Instructor credentials.

AAPC licenses members to teach its curriculum through the -I exams: CPC-I, CPB-I, COC-I, CIC-I, CRC-I, CPMA-I, CPPM-I, CDEO-I and CPCO-I, each a two-hour exam.

The requirements: be an AAPC-certified member in good standing, hold the certification you would teach, have five years of experience in that field and complete an instructor's course.

AAPC says less than 10% of its members are licensed to teach its curriculum.

AAPC keeps the entry door open.

Sitting for its exams takes current AAPC membership, a valid email and address on file, an unused exam voucher and a government photo ID — no degree or work experience is required to sit for the CPC.

AAPC still highly recommends two years of field experience, and it is AAPC's own position that employers typically prefer certification and training.

AAPC's two most popular first choices set the default path: the CPC on its own or the CPC paired with the CPB.

A first pass on the CPC without two years of experience lands as CPC-A, and AAPC lists four ways to remove the A — two years of coding employment, one year plus education, Practicode plus an 80-hour course, or its Job-Ready Program.

Adding credentials is deliberately friction-free: AAPC builds CPMA, CPCO, CPPM, CRC, CIC, CPB and its specialty credentials as stand-alone, with no requirement to hold a CPC or COC first.

Some still reward time in the field — the CDEO recommends an existing coding certification and the CPC-M requires five years — but the catalog lets you add risk adjustment, inpatient or billing depth without re-climbing a ladder.

The renewal math grows with the stack.

One certification needs 36 CEUs every two years, 40 for two, 44 for three, 48 for four and 52 for five or more.

Credential-specific CEUs ride on top: 16 each for CPMA, CPCO, CPPM and CDEO, and 8 per specialty credential.

For members holding a core credential plus specialty credentials, AAPC lets pre-approved specialty CEUs count toward the core requirement — but core CEUs cannot cover a second core credential.

Two costs stack too.

Active AAPC membership is required to sit for exams and to keep any certification active, and every exam fee is non-refundable, with a voucher that must be used within a year of purchase.

As the stack grows, keep an eye on how employers describe these roles in live medical coder jobs — and confirm every exam, fee and renewal rule with AAPC before you register.

Career information, not coding, billing-compliance, legal or tax advice; confirm current exam, fee, CEU and renewal details with AAPC.