Learning Games — Practice Medical Coding in 3D

Warm-up1–3 min

Code Rush

Sixty seconds. One description. Four suspiciously similar codes.

A description drifts into the center of a 3D field while four candidate ICD-10-CM codes orbit around it. Pick the right one before the timer runs out. The distractors are the codes that actually get miscoded in production — wrong laterality, wrong encounter character, wrong specificity — so a fast guess is usually the wrong guess.

What you practice

Laterality and encounter (7th character) discipline
Specified vs. unspecified code selection
Reading a description down to the last qualifier

Play Code Rush

Intermediate3–6 min

Denial Defender

Incoming denials. One correct fix each. Do not let them land.

Claim denials fly at your clearinghouse from deep space, each tagged with a real payer rejection — an Excludes1 conflict, a missing modifier, an unsupported medical-necessity link. Fire the correct remediation before impact. Three landed denials and the claim batch is toast.

What you practice

Excludes1 vs. Excludes2 conflicts
HCPCS/CPT modifier selection
Medical necessity and sequencing rules

Play Denial Defender

Advanced5–10 min

PCS Forge

Seven rotating drums. Build the procedure code character by character.

The hardest thing in inpatient coding, made physical: seven character drums you spin to forge an ICD-10-PCS code from an operative note. Section, body system, root operation, body part, approach, device, qualifier — each locks in with a satisfying clunk, and the forge only fires when all seven are right.

What you practice

The seven ICD-10-PCS character axes
Root operation definitions (Excision vs. Resection vs. Extraction)
Approach values, including percutaneous endoscopic

Play PCS Forge

Intermediate2–4 min

Modifier Match

Four situations, four modifier keys, one correct wiring.

A pair-matching board where every option is a modifier that gets confused with the one next to it — 76 against 77, 78 against 79, 26 against TC, 52 against 53. Link each billing situation to the modifier that actually resolves it. Clearing a board means separating rules that look nearly identical on paper.

What you practice

Repeat vs. return-to-OR modifiers (76/77/78/79)
Professional vs. technical component splits
Modifier 25 vs. 57 in the surgical window

Play Modifier Match

Advanced4–8 min

Sequence Surgeon

No right answer to spot — only the right order.

Stack the diagnosis codes from principal on down, the way the Official Guidelines require. Sepsis before its source, Z51.11 before the malignancy, the "code first" note before its manifestation. Exact sequences score full marks, and getting the principal right still earns partial credit, because that is most of the battle.

What you practice

Principal vs. secondary diagnosis selection
"Code first" and manifestation sequencing
Chapter-specific priority rules (obstetrics, newborn, HIV)

Play Sequence Surgeon

Advanced4–7 min

Audit Radar

Pass the clean ones. Flag the rest. Name the issue.

Claims cross the scope one at a time and you have thirty seconds each: pass it or flag it, then say what is wrong. Passing a clean claim scores exactly as much as catching a dirty one — because in real auditing, flagging everything is its own kind of wrong, and knowing when to leave a claim alone is half the skill.

What you practice

Recognising upcoding, unbundling and cloned notes
Judging when a modifier is genuinely supported
Resisting false positives on legitimate claims

Play Audit Radar

Code Rush

Denial Defender

PCS Forge

Modifier Match

Sequence Surgeon

Audit Radar

How to get the most out of these