Gastroenterology Coding Alert

CCI 18.3 Update:

CCI 18.3 Includes Skin Repair With Almost Every Gastroenterology Procedure

Add-on codes also face these edits through bundled primary procedure. The latest version (18.3) of the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edits went into effect Oct. 1, 2012, with sweeping changes that prevent you from reporting skin repair codes along with almost every procedure that your gastroenterologist will perform on a day-to-day basis. Mammoth changes: "In the 15 years or so that I have been analyzing the NCCI database, this release will go down in history as the Ripley's Believe it or Not quarterly change," warns Frank Cohen, MPA, MBB, principal and senior analyst for The Frank Cohen Group in Clearwater, Fla. "Effective October 1, 2012, there will be 233,241 new edit pairs added to the database. So, in addition to the overwhelming volume of reasons that payers use to deny payment to a practice, you can add 1 million more, which is just about the size of the new NCCI database. Over [...]
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