The American Medical Association (AMA) has released the official 2018 CPT coding rules and guidelines, which include hundreds of code, guideline, and text changes in the codes that are universally used in the U.S. healthcare system to report services to providers, insurers and accrediting organizations. To correctly interpret and report medical procedures and services, coders need to study the AMA’s official publication, of course, but they also often need help decoding the codes.
Oncology in particular will see a lot of changes in 2018, and it often overlaps with other specialties. Check out these key oncology CPT coding changes you can expect once the new codes kick in on January 1, 2018.
Straight-Up Oncology
- CPT 2018 will dramatically change the reporting of aspirations, so selecting the correct code here will be crucial.
- Heads up: There are two oncology surgery category III codes that will be invalid come January 1, 2018.
- If both a bone marrow aspiration and a biopsy are performed, you’ll need to report one new code in 2018.
Radiology and Oncology
- Say good-bye to chest x-ray codes 71010-71035, and make sure you know which new codes you’ll need to report instead.
- Get to know the new codes for chest and abdominal x-rays.
- There will be a new CPT Category 1 code with a revised descriptor for transperineal placement of biodegradable material to replace a Category III code, according to the American College of Radiology (ACR).
- Code 77422, involving high energy neutron radiation treatment delivery, was marked for deletion, according to ACR, because it just wasn’t being used.
- High energy neutron radiation treatment delivery code 77423, however, will be retained based on the efforts of the ACR and others.
- In nuclear medicine, code 78190, for kinetics, study of platelet survival, with or without differential organ/tissue localization, will be deleted because of low utilization, according to ACR.
Oncology and General Surgery
- Using +19294, the new add-on code for partial mastectomies, may be tricky at first.
Oncology and Dermatology
- There will be two new codes relevant to skin cancer treatments.
Oncology and Pathology
- One molecular pathology code will become a long list of new 81XXX series coding options in 2018.
- New MAAA codes are also on deck.
- You will need to know about the new U codes.
Learn From the Experts
Medical coding and billing in any specialty is an art and a science, and so learning from other professionals is always the best course. To learn more about these key oncology CPT changes and many others, join one of ProfEdOnDemand’s upcoming coding webinars or audio conferences, or sign up now for the annual coding event that is not to be missed, our 2018 Coding Updates Virtual Boot Camp in December that covers both CPT and ICD-10 coding changes in 10 top specialties.
