Medical Coding, INTRODUCTION TO CODING
In these sessions we will be learning the following.....
Basics of coding
Using of coding books
ICD-10-CM Codes
CPT Codes
HCPCS Codes
Here we will learn three types of Codes……
Let’s get into their details……
ICD:
The first of these is the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD codes.
ICD was developed by World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1948.ICD-10-CM was developed by National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) which is a division of the Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Studies.These are diagnostic codes that are used to describe the causes of injury, illness and death.
The number following “ICD” represents which revision of the code is in use.
For example, the code that’s currently in use in the United States is ICD-10-CM. This means it’s the tenth revision of the ICD code.
That “-CM” at the end stands for “clinical modification.” So the technical name for this code is the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification.
The Clinical Modification significantly increases the number of codes for diagnoses. This increased scope gives coders much more flexibility and specificity, which is essential for the profession. To give you an idea of how important the clinical modification is, the ICD-10 code, has 14,000 codes. It’s clinical modification, ICD-10-CM, contains over 68,000.
CPT:
Current Procedure Terminology, or CPT, codes, are used to document the majority of the medical procedures performed in a physician’s office. This code set is published and maintained by the American Medical Association (AMA). These codes are copyrighted by the AMA and are updated annually.
CPT codes are five-digit numeric codes that are divided into three categories. These codes are divided into six ranges. These ranges correspond to six major medical fields: Evaluation and Management, Anesthesia, Surgery, Radiology, Pathology and Laboratory, and Medicine.
CPT modifiers provide important additional information to the procedure code. For instance, there is a CPT modifier that describes which side of the body a procedure is performed on, and there’s also a code for a discontinued procedure.
HCPCS:
Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS), commonly pronounced as “hick picks,” are a set of codes based on CPT codes. Developed by the CMS (the same organization that developed CPT), and maintained by the AMA, HCPCS codes primarily correspond to services, procedures, and equipment not covered by CPT codes. This includes durable medical equipment, prosthetics, ambulance rides, and certain drugs and medicines.
The HCPCS code set is divided into two levels. The first of these levels is identical to the CPT codes that we covered earlier.
Level II is a set of alphanumeric codes that is divided into 17 sections, each based on an area of specificity, like Medical and Laboratory or Rehabilitative Services. Level II codes are HCPCS codes.
Now that you’ve got a better idea of what each of these codes is and what they do, let’s start exploring each code set in a little more detail.
Before going to ICD-10 codes, let’s see how it differs from ICD-9 codes…..
The two supplemental classifications in ICD-9-CM are included as chapters in ICD-10-CM.
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