the Office of Admissions.<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\u201cWhen I got done, I started second-guessing whether that was really what I wanted to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After relocating with her daughter to Grand Rapids, Minn., she decided to give up on the idea of becoming a nurse and seek new options. Wanting to stay in the medical field, she began exploring programs available at Northwest Technical College. There, she found the perfect fit in the college\u2019s Medical Coding program.<\/p>\n
\u201cMedical coding interested me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s on the insurance side and you still get to read reports and see what\u2019s going on with people. I didn\u2019t know much about it until I started, but after about two weeks I knew I loved it. I just took off with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two months prior to starting the program her son was born, and she moved back to Grand Forks, N.D. NTC\u2019s medical coding program can be completed entirely online, which allowed Masurka to pursue her education on her own terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely preferred it,\u201d she said of online coursework. \u201cI didn\u2019t have to get day care or do any of that. It takes a lot of time management, but I was able to get a lot done during the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
And through the personal attention she received from her instructors, Masurka was able to develop close relationships with NTC\u2019s faculty. She especially credits the support of Kaci Petersen, an NTC alumna herself who Masurka called \u201cjust awesome,\u201d for her success in the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s one of the best instructors or mentors I’ve had,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it wasn’t for her, I don’t know what I would have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petersen recalled Masurka as an inquisitive student with an obvious love for the work involved in medical coding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a special thing to have that connection with someone even though it\u2019s an online program,\u201d Petersen said. \u201cYou can tell right away when students like what you\u2019re teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Masurka\u2019s hard work has paid off. She graduated from NTC with honors in May 2018, passed her Certified Medical Coder exam and has landed a job with the Heart Institute of North Dakota. There, she\u2019ll be reviewing insurance submissions that initially were rejected for payment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going back through old claims to make sure they were coded correctly and to see if there\u2019s any way I can resubmit for payment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Masurka\u2019s path to a dream career and a bright future started with her decision to attend NTC.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an excellent school,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone there is great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After finishing school to become a nurse, Krysta Masurka questioned whether she had made the right decision. After returning to school and graduating from NTC’s Medical Coding program, she’s now on course toward her dream career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/career-paths\/health-care\/health-care-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}