Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Here's what you should delete and add. If you're scratching your head about some of the items that you feel the new CPT manual is missing -- or including -- you aren't alone. Check out these changes you need to make in your CPT 2009 manual. Some parenthetical instructions made several services appear to be shockingly bundled. Effective Nov. 21, you can hunt for errata on CPT's Web site, assured Marie L. Mindeman, BA, RHIT, with the AMA department of coding and nomenclature at the CPT and RBRVS 2009 Annual Symposium in Chicago. Relieve your concerns with these three notable errata: 1. General Surgery: Currently, if you look in CPT's index under "Implantation, Mesh," the first entry reads, "Debridement Closure Hernia Repair... 49568, 49652-49657." However, the AMA states that you should cross out the "debridement closure" entry from the index, leaving only the reference to mesh implantation for hernia repair. 2. Cardiology: The parenthetical note following 93285 (Programming device evaluation for implantable loop recorder systems) erroneously lists the codes that shouldn't be reported with 93285. You should change the parenthetical note to read, "Do not report 93285 in conjunction with 33282, 93279-93284, 93291." This ensures that practices will not think that you can report 93285 with the codes in the 93280-93283 series, says Anna O'Neill with Pike Multispecialty Clinic in Newark, N.J. 3. Modifiers: Scratch out "unusual" on the inside cover of your book. If you use the abbreviated "Modifiers" tool, update modifier 22 to its 2008 revised definition of "increased" procedural services. To read the full list of CPT 2009 errata, visit the AMA's Web site at www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/362/2009cptcorrections-111308.pdf.