Terms of Use

By accessing, purchasing, or using this course, you agree to comply with and be bound by the following Terms of Use. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not enroll or use the course materials. These terms include provisions on confidentiality and patient information, payment, and refunds, as set out below.

Payment terms

All pricing is in United States dollars and payment is in US funds. Your certificate of completion is issued once you have completed the course material.

Your responsibilities

As a user of this course, you agree to the following:

• Do not share your login credentials with anyone.
• Use the course materials solely for your own educational purposes.
• Comply with all applicable laws and regulations when using this course.
• Do not redistribute, copy, or resell the course materials without explicit written consent from Marie T. Matteson.
• Comply in full with the Confidentiality and Patient Information section below. No real patient information may be brought into this course, its live sessions, or its group channels.

Refunds and cancellation

Access

Upon purchase you are granted a limited license, which is not transferable, to access the course materials. Access is restricted to the registered user only and cannot be shared, transferred, or resold.

• Course materials. There is no deadline to finish. You may work through the course at your own pace for as long as the course is offered.
• Live Q and A and the WhatsApp group. Included for 90 days from the date you enroll. If something keeps you away during that time, write to me and I may extend it.
• Bonus content. Bonus lessons, including the lesson on billing secondary claims, are included at no extra charge. Course content may be updated, added to, or improved over time.

Liability

By enrolling in this course you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Marie T. Matteson and the payment processors involved in your transaction from any and all claims, damages, liabilities, losses, or expenses, including reasonable attorney fees, arising from or related to your use of the course materials.

Privacy

I collect personal data, including your name, email, and payment information, for the purpose of providing course access. This data is not shared with third parties, except payment processors such as Stripe and Square as necessary to complete transactions. You have the right to access, modify, or delete your personal data in compliance with GDPR and CCPA. The full site privacy policy is at mariematteson.com/privacypolicy.

Copyright and intellectual property

All course content, including text, video, worksheets, the practice desk, and graphics, is the intellectual property of Marie T. Matteson. Unauthorized use, copying, or distribution is strictly prohibited. You are granted a license that is not transferable, to access the content for your own educational purposes only.

Prohibited actions

You agree that you will not distribute, reproduce, or publish any content, in whole or in part, without the explicit written consent of Marie T. Matteson. Violation may result in immediate removal from the course without a refund and may subject the violator to legal action.

Confidentiality and patient information

This course contains no real patient information, and none may be brought into it. Every example, worksheet, practice desk record, and worked scenario uses fictitious patients created for teaching. That is deliberate, and it only holds if students keep it that way.

You agree that you will not upload, post, share, screenshot, paste, display, or discuss real patient information anywhere in connection with this course. This applies to all of it:

• Course assignments, worksheets, the practice desk, and any file you submit
• The live Q and A sessions on Zoom, including anything you share on screen
• The private support group on WhatsApp and any other group channel
• Direct messages to me or to another student
• Email to me or to my business

Real patient information means anything that identifies a patient or could reasonably be used to identify one. That includes names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, member and subscriber numbers, account numbers, medical record numbers, claim numbers, dates of service, and the name of a treating provider where it is tied to a specific patient.

It also includes images and documents. Do not upload or display a screenshot of a live practice management system, a real claim, a real explanation of benefits, a real remittance advice, a real superbill, or a real patient statement. Blacking out or covering a document is not sufficient. Redaction fails more often than people expect, and an image can carry information that is not visible on its face. If the underlying record is real, do not bring it in at all.

You can still ask about a real problem. Describe it without identifiers. The denial code, the payer type, the sequence of what happened, and the setting you suspect are all I need, and they are what makes a useful answer possible. If you would like to work through something specific, rebuild it with fictitious details and bring that instead.

Your own obligations do not change. If you work for a practice, a billing company, or a clearinghouse, your employment agreement, your employer confidentiality policy, and any business associate agreement your employer has signed continue to apply to you in full. Nothing in this course overrides them, and enrollment here is not permission from anyone to disclose information you are otherwise obliged to protect. If your employer policy is stricter than this section, follow your employer policy.

I may remove any content from any course channel at any time, without notice, if I believe it contains real patient information. A first occurrence will normally result in removal of the content and a written warning. A repeat occurrence, or a single serious one, may result in termination of your access to the course, its sessions, and its group channels, without refund. If you see patient information posted by another student, please tell me rather than replying to it.

No business associate relationship is created by this course. This course is education. It does not create, receive, maintain, or transmit protected health information on behalf of any covered entity. Nothing in these terms makes me a business associate of you or of your employer, and nothing in them makes you a business associate of me. This section is a confidentiality and acceptable use requirement, not a business associate agreement, and it should not be relied on as one.

If real patient information is genuinely involved, that is consulting, not the course. If your question requires me to look at your actual practice account, a real claim, a real remittance, or any other live record, that work falls outside this course. It is arranged separately as a consulting engagement, and a business associate agreement must be signed and in place before any patient information is shared with me. Do not share it in the course, its sessions, or its group channels while that is being arranged.

This section survives the end of your access to the course, however that access ends.

Educational disclaimer

This course is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute billing, coding, legal, medical, tax, or financial advice. Always follow your payer contracts, your practice policies, and current coding guidelines. Participation does not guarantee certification, employment, or any financial outcome. This course issues a certificate of completion. It is not a national certification, it does not confer a credential, and it is not exam preparation for AAPC, AHIMA, or any other credentialing body.

This is independent training. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any software vendor, and it does not display or reproduce any vendor's software.

Use of AI

I use AI tools in building this course. They help me draft and edit lesson text, build worksheets and the practice desk, and check my work. Every lesson, worksheet, and example was reviewed, corrected, and approved by me before it reached you. The teaching, the judgment calls, and the billing experience behind them are mine.

Quizzes are scored automatically against my own answer key. No AI grades your work. When you ask a question in the live Q and A or the WhatsApp group, I answer it myself.

If you use AI to study, treat what it tells you as a starting point. AI tools can state wrong billing rules, outdated codes, and invented payer policies with complete confidence. Check anything that matters against the payer, your practice policy, or current coding guidelines.

Technical requirements

The course is built for a desktop or laptop computer. It is your responsibility to ensure you have what you need to access the course materials, including a stable internet connection, a current browser, and a compatible device. Marie T. Matteson is not responsible for issues arising from technical limitations on your end. Your practice desk progress is saved in your own browser, so clearing your browser data may clear it.

Live Q and A sessions are scheduled on Pacific time. It is your responsibility to check the session time against your own time zone.

Payment processors

Payments may be processed through Stripe, Square, and other authorized payment processors. By enrolling you agree to comply with the terms and conditions of those processors. All transactions are secure and subject to the respective processor policies.

Governing law

These Terms of Use are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Washington, United States. Any dispute arising from these terms shall be resolved in the courts of the State of Washington.

Enrollment agreement

By enrolling in this course you formally agree to:

• Comply with the Confidentiality and Patient Information section above, and you understand that bringing real patient information into the course, its live sessions, or its group channels may end your access without refund.
• Abide by the refund and cancellation policy above.
• Meet the payment terms above.
• Fulfill any technical or legal obligations necessary for course participation.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, ask before you enroll. Call +1 (360) 300 5588 or send a message.