Ace the 2026 ACFE Accounting Terminology Challenge – Decode, Defeat, and Dominate!

Upcoding is billing for a higher level of medical service than what was actually provided. This happens when a provider uses a more complex CPT code to obtain a larger payment than warranted by the services performed, often tied to the idea that higher codes indicate more time, effort, or complexity. Codes are assigned based on the level of service, and higher codes come with higher reimbursement; selecting a higher code than justified inflates the charge. This term is the precise description of the practice in medical billing.

The other terms don’t fit as well: upcharging isn’t the standard term for this specific billing action, overbilling is a general term for charging more than is owed without specifying the mechanism, and fraud is the broader illegal category that can include upcoding but refers to the wrongdoing itself rather than the specific act.