The Health Information Technician program is designed to prepare students for careers in a variety of healthcare settings, including medical offices, hospitals, clinics, and skilled-care facilities. The curriculum is structured to include didactic instruction in several areas, including, but not limited to, health data management, diagnostic and procedure coding, medical billing practices, healthcare reimbursement and delivery systems, health record maintenance, information technology, organizational resources, medical law and ethics, medical terminology, and anatomy and physiology. The final portion of the curriculum includes a required supervised clinical externship at a healthcare facility. At the completion of the program, graduates should have the knowledge and skills necessary to seek entry-level employment in the field of health information management.

The Health Information Technician program is not programmatically accredited. Graduates of the program are encouraged to take certification examinations given by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the American Association of Professional Coders (AAPC). These certification examinations are voluntary but obtaining these certifications may enhance employment opportunities. Graduates are eligible to take the Certified Coding Associate (CCA) examination offered by AHIMA and the Certified Professional Coder-Apprentice (CPC-Apprentice) examinations offered by AAPC upon graduation. Graduates may apply for the official CPC credential after completing at least two years of coding experience after graduation as defined by AAPC. Other exams offered by these agencies may require significant additional work experience and/or graduation from a program accredited by AHIMA. The Health Information Technician program is not programmatically accredited and the program’s graduates are not eligible to apply for some other exams, specifically the RHIA (Registered Health Information Administrator) and RHIT (Registered Health Information Technician) examinations offered by AHIMA. Registration and certification requirements for taking and passing these examinations are not controlled by Brown College but by outside agencies and are subject to change by the agency without notice. Therefore, Brown College cannot guarantee that graduates will be eligible to take certification exams at all or at any specific time, regardless of their eligibility status upon enrollment.