Why You Need to be Aware of Birthing Codes

The March 2023 Coordination and Maintenance Committee is the venue for the birthing of new codes.

The March Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting is over.

The recordings for both days have been posted on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website. Additionally, the question-and-answer document for the procedures has been published.

There were 22 topics on the final procedure agenda, as well as nine therapeutic agent proposals that were not reviewed during the procedure presentation. Twenty proposals involved requested new technology add-on payment (NTAP) status for the 2024 fiscal year; one intends to request NTAP status for 2025, and one intends to apply for NTAP status for 2026 consideration. The slides have also been published. There were 32 topics and the addenda on the agenda for diagnoses.

The deadline for receipt of public comments on the Oct. 1 proposed new codes and revisions is April 7. The deadline for receipt of public comments for new procedure codes and revisions effective April 1, 2024 is May 5, 2023, which is also the deadline for comments on new and revised diagnosis codes effective Oct. 1, 2024. Send procedure comments to ICDProcedureCodeRequest@cms.hhs.gov and diagnosis comments to nchsicd10cm@cdc.gov. The 2024 codes that become effective on Oct. 1, 2023 will be published in the May/June time frame.

The deadline for submitting a proposal for the Sept. 12 and 13 Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting is June 9. The proposal should include the desire for consideration for the April 1, 2024 or Oct. 1, 2024 implementation date. The procedure proposals must be submitted through MEARIS™, which is the Medicare Electronic Application Request Information System. Diagnosis proposals may be emailed to nchsicd10cm@cdc.gov.

One way to keep current on the activities of the Coordination and Maintenance Committee is to sign up for the subscriber list. To sign up, go to the CMS website.

The Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting provides the process to “birth” a new code. There is also a preparation for the birth, which is begun during the application process. Each proposal, which includes clinical as well as coding information, is then presented at the Coordination and Maintenance Committee meetings. After this presentation, there are discussions at CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The code “birth” occurs when the final codes are published in the Federal Register and on the CMS and CDC websites.

The process of developing a new code is very important, as it impacts the revenue cycle and statistics. The revenue cycle uses the data to project revenue expectations, and the statistics are used by researchers, government officials, medical companies, etc. If you haven’t participated in the Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting, I encourage you to listen to the March meeting and send constructive feedback. The feedback is not made public, and you can earn the satisfaction of impacting the coding system.

Programming note: Listen to Laurie Johnson’s live Coding Report today and every Tuesday on Talk Ten Tuesdays  with Chuck Buck and Dr. Erica Remer.

Resources:

ICD-10-PCS: ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting Materials | CMS

ICD-10-CM: ICD – ICD-10-CM – Coordination and Maintenance Committee (cdc.gov)