2013 Picks for HCPCS Level II

Effective Jan. 1, 2013, there are 150 changes, plus lots of quality performance measurement G code updates.

By G.J. Verhovshek, MA, CPC
Since April 1, 2012, the HCPCS Level II code set has undergone approximately 150 individual changes, not counting those G codes used for reporting to the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) or Medicare demonstration projects (more on those below).

New Modifiers

Among the changes are seven new modifiers for Medicare reporting, which must be appended to HCPCS Level II codes G8978-G9176 (new for 2013) to describe a functional limitation (e.g., G8981-G8983 Changing and maintaining body position functional limitation …). The modifiers describe the extent of the functional limitation.
CH     0 percent impaired, limited or restricted
CI       At least 1 percent but less than 20 percent impaired, limited or restricted
CJ      At least 20 percent but less than 40 percent impaired, limited or restricted
CK     At least 40 percent but less than 60 percent impaired, limited or restricted
CL      At least 60 percent but less than 80 percent impaired, limited or restricted
CM     At least 80 percent but less than 100 percent impaired, limited or restricted
CN     100 percent impaired, limited or restricted
The G codes with modifiers must be reported at regular intervals for Medicare patients who receive outpatient therapy services, including:

• At the outset of therapy episode
• On or before every 10 treatment days throughout the course of therapy
• At the time of discharge from therapy
• At the time the beneficiary’s condition, changes significant enough to clinically warrant a re-evaluation such that a HCPCS/CPT® code for a re-evaluation or a repeat evaluation is billed

Also new are two modifiers that may be used to “break” National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) edits, when appropriate. Modifiers LM Left main coronary artery and RI Ramus intermedius coronary artery alert the payer that two procedures occurred at separate sites and may be reimbursed separately, similar to modifiers LT Left side and RT Right side.
Modifiers V8 and V9, previously used with dialysis revenue code lines for all end stage renal disease (ESRD) claims and all ESRD hemodialysis claims, were deactivated April 1, 2012.

New Supply Codes

As always, there has been plenty of action when it comes to drug supply codes as temporary codes transition to permanent status and new drugs are added. See Table 1 for details.
And as shown in Table 2, there has been a lot of movement in codes used to describe skin substitutes.

Matching HCPCS and CPT^® Changes

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) designated several new HCPCS Level II codes to take the place of CPT® codes for Medicare reporting.
For example, since 2003, CMS has assigned coronary stent placement procedures to separate ambulatory payment classifications based on the use of nondrug-eluting or drug-eluting stents. To enact this policy, CMS created G0290 and G0291, which corresponded to CPT® codes 92980 and 92981. For 2013, CPT® deleted 92980 and 92981, replacing them with new, more granular codes describing coronary therapeutic services and procedures.
To maintain the existing policy of differentiating payment for intracoronary stent placement procedures involving nondrug-eluting and drug-eluting stents, CMS designated new HCPCS Level II C codes to parallel the new CPT® codes:

HCPCS = CPT^®

C9600 = 92920

C9601 = 92921

C9602 = 92924

C9603 = 92925

C9604 = 92937

C9605 = 92938

C9606 = 92941

C9607 = 92943

C9608 = 92944

Consult Table 3 on the next page for a list of other new HCPCS Level II codes, some of which were created to take the place of CPT® codes for Medicare reporting.
Another interesting code is Q9969 Tc-99m from non-highly enriched uranium source, full cost recovery add-on, per study dose, which is newly established to report Tc-99m from non-highly enriched uranium (HEU) sources. TC-99m is the most widely used radioisotope for diagnosing diseased organs. For 2013, CMS will make an additional payment of $10 to cover the marginal costs associated with non-HEU Tc-99m production.
In some cases, newly-created CPT® codes have taken the place of now-deleted HCPCS Level II codes. For example, Category III CPT® code 0308T Insertion of ocular telescope prosthesis including removal of crystalline lens replaced C9732 for ocular telescope prosthesis with removal of crystalline lens, while many pathology procedures in the range S3711-S3860 have been deleted and replaced with new CPT® codes describing molecular pathology and multianalyte assays with algorithmic analysis (e.g., 81200-81408, 81500-81512, 81599, and 86152-86153).
Finally, V5267 has been revised to specify Hearing aid or assistive listening device/supplies/accessories, not otherwise specified, and 10 new codes have been added to describe personal FM/DM auditory devices, which are used with hearing aids to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, allowing the listener to hear better in the presence of background noise.
Table 1

*Medicare does not accept S codes.
Table 2

 
Table 3

Physician Quality Reporting and Medicare Demonstration Projects

G codes in the range G8000–G8999 are designated PQRS codes. Since April 1, 2012 there have been 114 code additions, 48 code deletions, and 122 code revisions to the G codes used to report quality performance measurements.
Eligible professionals (EPs) who successfully report on quality measures in the PQRS are eligible for a 0.5 percent Medicare payment incentive for years 2012-2014. In 2015, EPs and groups that do not report quality data successfully will face a 1.5 percent payment reduction in Medicare payments, and a 2 percent reduction for 2016. For additional information about PQRS, visit the CMS website.
G codes in the range G9000–G9999 are applied for Medicare Demonstration Project reporting. Since April 1, 2012, there have been 21 new codes and two code deletions in this section. For more information on Medicare Demonstration Projects, visit the CMS website.

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