Coding Resource Center
August 2020
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to field questions surrounding the use of telephone Evaluation & Management (E/M) CPT® codes 99441-99443 during the Public Health Emergency (PHE). CMS states these are patient-initiated services, but practitioners can provide education to beneficiaries on the availability of these services. For the duration of the PHE, […]
On August 10, 2020, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the extension of the Educational and Operations Testing Period for the appropriate use criteria (AUC) and clinical decision support mechanism mandate through December 31, 2021. This decision is considered final and is not open to comment. The mandate is inclusive of all advanced diagnostic […]
July 2020
Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the renewal of the public health emergency (PHE) declared due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The PHE was originally declared on January 31, 2020 and renewed on April 21, 2020. The new extension went into effect on July 25, 2020 and will […]
On July 6, CMS issued a proposed rule (CMS-1732-P) that proposes to update payment policies and rates under the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) for renal dialysis services furnished to beneficiaries on or after January 1, 2021. This rule also proposes updates to the Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) dialysis payment rate for renal dialysis services […]
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has implemented 12 new procedure codes to describe the introduction or infusion of therapeutic substances into ICD-10-PCS, effective for discharges on or after August 1, 2020. The ICD-10 MS-DRG Grouper software package Version 37.2 will accommodate these new codes. All of the […]
The FY 2021 ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes have been released and are available on the CMS 2021 ICD-10-CM page and CDC ICD-10-CM page. These FY 2021 ICD-10-CM codes are to be used for discharges effective October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021. The updates include FY 2021 official guidelines, alphabetic index tables and addenda, tabular list and addenda, and Present on Admission (POA) code list table. Of interest, the update summary includes: Total ICD-10-CM codes 490 […]
June 2020
CMS announced physicians will have the option to opt-out completely or partially from the 2020 Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPS). In order to do this a hardship exemption must be completed and indicate the hardship is due to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) Individuals and groups will have until December 31, 2020 to compete the application. Physicians […]
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has released new clinical practice guidelines on the appropriate care and treatment of aneurysms of the visceral arteries. These clinical practice guidelines are provided to vascular surgeons who treat patients with visceral artery aneurysms (renal, celiac, splenic, gastric/gastroepiploic, hepatic, pancreaticoduodenal, gastroduodenal, super mesenteric, jejunal and ileal). These type aneurysms make […]
CMS recently released the ICD-10-PCS procedure code updates for FY 2021 and are available on the 2021 ICD-10-PCS page. These FY 2021 ICD-10-PCS codes are to be used for discharges effective October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021. The updates include FY 2021 official guidelines, code tables, index, definitions addenda and, conversion table. The update summary includes: Total ICD-10-PCS codes Addition of 544 new […]
May 2020
On May 11, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that updates Medicare payment policies for hospitals under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2021. CMS has published this proposed rule to meet the legal requirement to update Medicare payment policies for IPPS hospitals on […]
