Now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the ICD-10-CM codes that you’ll be using from October 1, 2017 through the fall of 2018, it’s time to start studying how the changes will affect your practice’s cardiology coding. Changes are in store for heart failure codes, additions of types to acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and moderate sedation relating to cardiology.
Key Changes in Cardiology Coding
In general, there are approximately 363 new codes, 142 deleted codes, and more than 250 revisions for the update this year, including some revisions that were not in the 2018 proposal but were added to the 2018 release. In those revisions, cardiology practice coders will want to pay special attention to more specific heart failure codes, as well as AMI codes, which will now have a Type 1 and Type 2.
Following up on CMS’s stated purpose in updating from ICD-9 to ICD-10 in 2015, for cardiology, the focus remains on increasing specificity and documenting the downstream effects of the patient’s condition.
Relevant points in the 2017-2018 code updates for the cardiology specialty also include:
- Conversion of “other secondary pulmonary hypertension” to the parent code in the cardiovascular category
- The impact of a patient’s response to medication
- More mild, moderate and severe terms to be used for classification purposes
- Initial, subsequent and sequela 7-digit characters, which may pay a bigger role in coding cardiology in 2018
- Accurate reporting of catheter lab services
- What’s important for pacemaker and valve replacements coding
Everyone from physicians to coders, billers and administrators to specialty coders and cath lab employees is looking to understand the impact of the changes to the cardiology codes for 2018. There’s help on the way!
Find Out More
Join expert coder Terry Fletcher in ProfEdOnDemand’s 60-minute live audio conference, “2018 ICD-10-CM Update for Cardiology,” to find out more about all the cardiology-specific impacts to the upcoming ICD-10-CM code changes. You’ll learn all about the updates for ICD-10-CM 2018, and what you will need to do to get ready for the new year. This session will have a major impact on your 2017-2018 reimbursement by providing you with the tools you need to ensure you are submitting clean, fully reimbursable claims for cardiology services to your payers.
Thanks for sharing the valuable information. Yes I agree, ICD-10 comes with lot more benefits like better equipped for tracking emerging diseases, improve documentation, increase reimbursement, allow better tracking of quality data, and enhance patient care.