Orthopedic Coding Alert

On Jan. 1, 2002, CMS assigned a new specialty code for physicians who specialize in pain management.
 
Code 72 becomes a component of the unique professional identification number that CMS provides each physician.
 
Physicians who specialize in pain management but were registered with Medicare under other specialties may now change their designated specialty code to pain management.
 
Pain management physicians hail this change for the specialists, whose practices had seen little or no reimbursement from Medicare in the absence of a specialty code.
 
The move suggests that CMS may be growing more accepting of pain management as a specialty (very few codes exist for the specialty and Medicare pays for even fewer).
 
CMS has instructed local Part B carriers to publish information about the new code and how physicians can request to use it.