General Surgery Coding Alert

Counting on version 17.3 will put you behind.

If you're used to ignoring new CCI edits for the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment Systems (OPPS) because the implementation date lags by a quarter -- don't count on it.

Here's why: CMS has announced that the outpatient code editor (OCE) version 18.0 will include the OCE version 17.3 and the new version 18.0, both of which will be implemented at the same time on Jan. 1.

That means you'll need to code according to CCI version 18.0 for inpatient and outpatient billing starting Jan. 1, or face denials.