What CIC is
The Certified Inpatient Coder (CIC) credential, from AAPC, focuses on hospital inpatient facility coding — a discipline with its own procedure code set, its own payment system, and rules that don't carry over from outpatient or physician coding.
The inpatient coding flow
Inpatient coding waits for the full stay and discharge summary before the final DRG can be assigned.
Unlike outpatient encounters, an inpatient stay is coded as a whole episode — the coder waits for the complete record, including the discharge summary, before assigning final codes.
Key concepts unique to inpatient coding
| Concept | What it means |
|---|---|
| ICD-10-PCS | The procedure code set used only for inpatient hospital procedures — entirely separate from CPT |
| MS-DRG | Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Group — the payment classification that groups the whole stay into one payment based on diagnoses, procedures, and complications |
| POA indicator | Present on Admission — flags whether a diagnosis existed at admission or developed during the stay (affects DRG and payment) |
| Principal diagnosis | The condition, after study, found to be chiefly responsible for the admission — a distinctly inpatient concept |
Exam format
| Detail | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Administered by | AAPC |
| Focus | Hospital inpatient facility coding |
| Code sets | ICD-10-CM (diagnosis) and ICD-10-PCS (procedure) |
Who should pursue CIC
Coders targeting hospital inpatient coding departments — typically a higher-complexity, often higher-paying coding specialty than outpatient or physician-office coding, because of the added complexity of ICD-10-PCS and DRG logic.
Note: ICD-10-PCS has a very different structure from CPT — it's built from seven-character codes where each character position has a fixed meaning (body system, root operation, body part, approach, device, qualifier). It's worth getting comfortable with that structure early, since it doesn't resemble CPT at all.
Want the credential that covers both inpatient and outpatient facility coding?
Read: Introduction to CCS →