Medical Coding Updates
The FY 2022 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for coding and reporting have been posted on the CDC website (2021). Fiscal Year 2022 introduces several guideline revisions, updates, and changes, some of which relate to new codes being implemented October 1, 2021. One example is Post COVID-19 Condition code U09.9.
CMS released the 2022 OPPS Proposed Rule, which suggests the reversal of the decision to abolish the Inpatient Only (IPO) list. Comments on the rule are being accepted through September 17, 2021.
CMS released the 2022 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) Proposed Rule, expanding on the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model (CMS, 2021). Included within the new update, home health agencies that do not meet the required reporting guidelines will receive a 2%-point reduction in their annual update.
The FY 2022 ICD 10 CM updates have been posted on the CDC website, but the 2022 Guidelines will be available for review at a later date (CDC, 2021).
The files for the 2022 ICD-10-PCS updates are now available (CMS, 2021). A total of 191 codes are new for FY 2022 with 107 deleted and 62 revised (CMS, 2021).
The 2022 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Proposed Rule suggests significant changes for October 1, 2021 relating to payment, MS-DRGs, as well as new diagnosis and procedure codes.
New CPT codes for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax Inc. were released by the AMA and will be put in use pending approval or an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (AMA, 2021).
Four telehealth CPT service codes have been removed from the final CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. CMS issued a notice to clarify that the four CPT codes were added by accident due to technical errors (CMS-HHS, 2021).
The AMA released technical corrections to the E/M services guidelines on March 9, 2021. The corrections are retroactive to the January 1 implementation date of the updates (AMA, 2021).
The FAQs document published by AHIMA and AHA has provided valuable information on the coding of COVID-19-related cases since March 2020, before the U07.1 code took effect on April 1, 2020.