Sometimes, honesty is the best policy.
With regard to writing this article, I was woefully unprepared.
Any number of reasons for this are available, from the sudden lack of relevant government transmittals and general industry silence ahead of the holidays, to the fact that I still have gifts to buy and have maybe 10 hours of useful daylight left in order to do it.
So, with 9 days before the new year, I present a slapdash overview of relevant changes to the HCPCS code set for 2010.
I'm going to attempt as best I can to restrict my updates to code that I myself have seen our client base utilize on a regular basis, or new codes that represent a service that is widely provided in the world at large.
This will keep this posting from slipping precipitously into the Gorge of Too Much Information: A6200-A6202 - These codes are currently used for composite dressing pads without adhesive borders.
These codes are disappearing on January 1, 2010.
There are no codes to replace these codes, based on the fact that these codes have been covered based on individual carrier discretion for some time (read: not often or at all).
G0151-G0155 - This represents a new set of codes for 2010 for different types of therapy services provided to patients in either the home health or hospice settings.
These services are billed in 15-minutes increments.
G0420 - This is a new code for individual chronic kidney disease education.
This code is billed on an hourly basis.
Once the actual dollars and cents fee schedule is released for 2010 by Medicare, this code can be accurately assessed for usefulness.
J7322 - The code for Synvisc is changing for 2010.
J7322 is being replaced by J 7325.
The reason for this has to do with there now being more than one type of Synvisc now available.
Code J7325 now covers more than one Synvisc derivative.
Elastic Orthoses - Several HCPCS L codes are being deleted from the HCPCS code set.
Since April 1st, 2009, the codes to be deleted have been found by CMS to not meet the definition of a brace and coverage has been denied.
The deletion of these codes is a natural progression from that determination.
The majority of the balance of changes to the 2010 HCPCS code set are an expansion of the existing Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) codes.
If you are currently utilizing PQRI, a quick review of these codes may be worth a look.
Thus concludes this somewhat informative and not the least bit inspired article.
As you conclude your holiday seasons, do your best to show a little kindness.
You'd be surprised how far it goes, and how much it will be appreciated.
As Randy Newman says, "It's a jungle out there".