Let's take a look at the CPT changes for 2008 recently published by the AMA.

For 2008, 51 codes were deleted across all major code groupings.

306 code descriptions were updated. There are 242 new codes. The following are temporary codes:

• 102 Category II Codes for the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative program which is detailed in CMS's most recent 2008 PQRI Measure Specifications. These supplemental tracking codes can be used for performance measurement and are intended to facilitate data collection about the quality of care rendered by coding certain services and test results that support nationally established, evidence-based performance measure. The use of these codes is optional.
• 13 Temporary Category III Codes for bi-annual vaccinations release, emerging technologies, services, and procedures. This list is available from the American Medical Association.

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The remaining 127 new Category I codes occur in the following book sections:

• 15 E&M codes on the topics of medical team conferences, smoking cessation visits, drug screenings, telephone and online evaluations, neonatal hospital care, and medication management,
• 2 Anesthesia codes on percutaneous image-guided procedures on the spine and spinal cord,
• 25 musculoskeletal surgical procedures including needle placement for radioelement application, computer-assisted navigational procedures, TMJ manipulation, spine osteotomy, elbow tenotomy, fracture treatment, osteochondral autograft, and arthroscopies,
• 5 respiratory surgical procedures including thoracocentesis, insertion of pleural cath, tube thoracostomy, and chemical pleurodesis,
• 9 cardiovascular surgical procedures including operative tissue ablation with atrial reconstruction, ascending aorta graft, transcath placement of wireless physiologic sensor, bypass graft, collection of blood specimens, and declotting implanted vascular access device,
• 13 gastrointestinal surgical procedures including needle placement for radioelement application, excision of abdominal tumors, tube insertions, conversions, and replacements under fluoroscopy, mechanical removal of tube obstructive material, contrast injection for evaluation of existing -ostomy,
• 7 urinary surgical procedures including removal of indwelling utereral stents, renal tumor ablation, bladder aspiration, and laser prostate enucleation,
• 7 genital or abdominal surgical procedures including needle placement for radioelement application, paravaginal defect repair, and laparoscopy with total hysterectomy,
• 1 endocrine surgical procedure for aspirating or injecting a thyroid cyst,
• 6 eye and auditory surgical procedures including mechanical vitrectomy, repair of complex retinal detachment, preterm infant retinopathy treatment, and nasolacrimal duct probing,
• 8 radiological procedures all focused on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging,
• 11 new laboratory tests from Cystatin C to semen analysis,
• 4 new immune globulins and flu vaccines,
• 4 new injection and infusion codes,
• 1 non-invasive vascular diagnostic study,
• 3 neurostimulator pulse system electronic analysis codes,
• 1 standardized cognitive performance testing code,
• 4 patient education codes including telephone and online assessments, and
• 1 ocular photoscreening code.

Dr. Carter's Corner
Darren Carter, MD, founder and President of Provistas, has a personal commitment to alleviating uncertainties in the new health compliance environment. He has authored dozens of articles, presents to professional and hospital associations, serves on several editorial boards, and provides consulting and expert witness testimony.

CPT® 2008 Manuals Shipping NOW

The perennial favorite CPT manuals for many coders, the AMA's own CPT Standard, CPT Professional, and CPT Changes for 2008 are shipping now. If you've already ordered the books, the AMA has released errata downloadable as a PDF.

Medical Coding .Net is excited to announce a new CPT manual offering, the Procedural Coding Professional. For those coders who want as much information as the AMA offers plus:

• Plain English Descriptions" for coding tips and guidance to describe how to accurately code claims
• Symbols denoting references to CPT Assistant and Medicare's Pub 100 manuals
• Symbols denoting billing for bilateral procedures, assistant surgeon, co-surgeon, and team surgery
• Symbols indicating those codes subject to patient age and sex edits
• Full-color illustrations to provide greater insight to specific procedures
• RVU values for each code along with Medicare global follow up days
• HCPCS Level II coding tips when applicable

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More information please go to: MedicalCoding.Net