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Certified Inpatient Coder
Find the current format, timing, scoring, fees, eligibility, and testing options for CIC, with direct links to official sources.
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Questions40 multiple-choice questions plus 7 inpatient medical-record cases with fill-in-the-blank questions (each case has 5-15 possible answers, weighted equally)
Testing time4 hours, administered in one sitting
ScoringPassing requires an overall score of 70% or higher; failed candidates are notified of categories/areas of study with sub-scores of 65% or less to guide retesting
Exam feeUSD 425 for one exam attempt, or USD 499 for two exam attempts; requires current-year (or preceding-year) ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS code books, available as print or eBooks through the exam platform; credential maintenance requires AAPC annual membership plus 36 CEUs every two years
Prep options
Study resources for CIC
Independent prep
Courses and study resources
Exam overview
What to know before choosing your prep
- Who runs it
- AAPC
- Category
- Health Information & Coding
- Current version
- Current specification; no public version label (single current CIC exam with a published 40-multiple-choice-question plus 7-case breakdown)
- Where it applies
- United States — national
- Exam languages
- English
- Score scale
- Percentage of correct answers (70% pass mark)
- Testing provider
- Meazure Learning testing centers; live remote proctoring for at-home exams
- Format
- Open-book, computer-based exam of multiple-choice and case-based fill-in-the-blank questions in a single 4-hour sitting; taken online at home with a live remote proctor or on a computer at a testing center; approved references limited to one ICD-10-CM and one ICD-10-PCS code book (current or prior year print, or current-year eBooks via the platform), with an on-screen calculator
- Availability
- Year-round by appointment; at-home exams offer flexible 24/7 scheduling, and testing centers are available at hundreds of locations worldwide
- Results
- Results posted online in the candidate's My AAPC Account Dashboard under My Exams within 7-10 business days after taking the exam; certificate mailed after passing
- Remote testing
- Available
Exam structure
One open-book computer-based exam of 40 multiple-choice questions plus 7 inpatient coding cases; question domains: Medical Record and Healthcare Documentation Guidelines (7 questions), Medical Terminology, Anatomy and Pathophysiology (3), Inpatient Coding (7), Inpatient Payment Methodologies (9), Outpatient Payment Methodology (3), Regulatory and Payer Requirements (6), Compliance (5), Coding Cases (7 cases with fill-in-the-blank ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS answers)
Where rules vary
U.S. inpatient facility coding credential centered on American payers and regulations (MS-DRG assignment, Medicare Parts A-D, UB-04, OIG/CERT/RAC audits); exam content is uniform, and testing centers are available at hundreds of locations worldwide plus at-home proctoring
Eligibility
No formal eligibility gate, but AAPC recommends taking the CIC Training Course beforehand and assumes a solid understanding of medical terminology, anatomy, and pathophysiology; one ICD-10-CM and one ICD-10-PCS code book (current or prior year) are required at the exam
Retake policy
A second attempt is bundled at purchase time — one exam attempt for $425 or two attempts for $499; failed candidates are shown categories with sub-scores of 65% or less to prepare for retesting