The University of Texas at San Antonio — Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE)
Certified Medical Billing and Coding Specialist (CBCS) Training
A structured, live-instructor CBCS cohort from a public university — strong on paper, but young and unproven by any independent student voice.
4 months · 100% Online · Live cohort·Updated May 2026
Our take
Strong public-university structure on paper, but independent student evidence is still thin.
Community score · no reviews yet
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No public review evidence yet
Our take · May 2026
Our take on The University of Texas at San Antonio — Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE)
A structured, live-instructor CBCS cohort from a public university — strong on paper, but young and unproven by any independent student voice.
What makes this one different
Most CBCS prep in this comparison is self-paced and you teach yourself. This one is the opposite: a live, instructor-led cohort that meets on a fixed schedule for 16 weeks — Tuesday and Thursday evenings, or Saturdays. You learn from two named instructors with long San Antonio healthcare careers and broad credential stacks across the NHA, AAPC, and AHIMA bodies. If you know you learn better with a real teacher, set class times, and classmates, that structure is the main reason to pick this over a cheaper self-paced course.[1]
What it costs and how people pay for it
Tuition is a flat $3,695 and includes the NHA CBCS exam voucher; there is no perpetual-sale gimmick on this page. You can split it into three payments of $1,256 (each adds a $25 fee). It is not FAFSA-eligible because it is non-credit, and it is not advertised as VA-approved. The big affordability lever is the City of San Antonio's SA: Ready to Work grant — if you qualify, it can cover the program. One caution from local residents: SA: Ready to Work billing-and-coding funding has been inconsistently gatekept at intake, so confirm funding for this specific UTSA program in writing before you count on it.[2][3]
How strong is the pass-rate claim
UTSA's newsroom reports a 100% NHA CBCS pass rate across the first 106 students since March 2023. Treat that as a hopeful signal, not a guarantee. It is the school's own number, not independently audited, the sample is small, and students only get to sit for the exam after completing 90% of the work and missing no more than three classes — so weaker students are filtered out before they ever test. A real strength of the live format is accountability; just don't read 100% as a promise the exam is easy.[4]
What to confirm before you enroll
Two things are genuinely unknown from the public page, and both matter. First, the NHA CBCS exam went closed-book in September 2024 — no coding manuals allowed in the room — and the page does not say whether the 18-hour certification-review module was rebuilt for that format. Ask the program directly. Second, the exam is proctored in person at UTSA's Downtown Campus, so if you are not near San Antonio, budget the travel for exam day. Also confirm your SA: Ready to Work eligibility for this exact program in writing, and ask the refund schedule before you pay.[5]
What the evidence does and doesn't tell us
Be aware of what you are deciding on. This program is about three years old, small, and local, and there are no independent student reviews of it anywhere — not on Reddit, not on review sites, not in the press. Everything positive here comes from the university itself. That does not make it a bad program; the structure, accreditation, and instructor credentials are real and checkable. It does mean you are an early adopter, so lean harder on the questions above and, if you can, ask the program to connect you with a recent graduate before you commit.[5]
Sources
[1]Meet the Instructors (Other, 2026-05-15)
[2]Growth, innovation embolden UTSA's continuing education programs (Other, 2025-01-13)
[3]ready to work program (Reddit, 2025-10-18)
[4]PaCE works: A year of growth and innovation for UTSA's professional and continuing education programs (Other, 2025-01-13)
[5]Independent review surface check (Other, 2026-05-15)
Cost
What it costs
$3,695
over 4 months
Pay out of pocket · 100% Online · Live cohort
| Tuition | $3,695 |
| Exam fee | $117 |
| FAFSA eligible | No |
Reviews
What real students say
We don't have aggregated review evidence yet for this program. Verify reviews directly with the school or on Reddit/Trustpilot.
Career overview
Medical Billing and Coding Specialist at a glance
Medical billing and coding is administrative health care work. You translate clinical notes into billing codes, help claims move through the system, and keep records clean enough for insurers and providers to use.
Daily work: Use ICD-10, CPT, and HCPCS codes to document diagnoses, procedures, and reimbursement details.
Work setting: Most jobs sit inside physician practices, hospitals, insurers, billing companies, or skilled nursing facilities.
Remote reality: Remote jobs exist, but they are easier to land after you have coding experience and strong specialty knowledge.
- Median pay
- $50k/yr
- Below the U.S. healthcare-occupation median of about $80k. Entry roles often start in the high $30s.
- BLS OEWS
- U.S. jobs
- 187,910
- A mid-sized health-information field — similar headcount to physical therapists, much smaller than registered nurses.
- BLS OEWS
- Job outlook
- Faster than average
- Projected 7% growth through 2033 — roughly 2× the all-occupations average of 4%.
- BLS Occupational Outlook
- AI impact
- Replacement
- High AI exposure: routine outpatient coding is increasingly automated. Specialty and inpatient coders are more resilient.
- AI impact guide