February 2015
Welcome to the January 2015 edition of the ATS Coding and Billing Quarterly. The New Year will bring a number of important changes to medicine for practitioners of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. Below are some issues that ATS members and their staff need to be aware of and prepared for:
ICD-10 Transition
Barring another last minute intervention by Congress (which is possible but very unlikely), 2015 will be the year of the ICD-10 transition. I hope providers and practices are well underway preparing for the transition. Over the past year, the ATS Coding and Billing Quarterly has featured articles on the transition. The April 2015 edition will cover ICD-10 for pediatric pulmonary services.
Lung Cancer Screening Coverage
Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final coverage policy for lung cancer screening. In this issue, Dr. Kovitz describes the final coverage policy, its impact on Medicare and private coverage, as well as tips for coding services related to screening.
New ECMO codes
Also covered in this issue is the new and expanded family of codes for EMCO services. Dr. Hussain describes the new codes and how they will likely be used by pediatric and adult providers.
Sustainable Growth Rate Factor
Yes, the looming SGR problem is still with us. Despite the significant progress made by Congress last year, they still were unable to pass a permanent fix to the SGR crisis and for the 17th time, passed a shortterm patch. The short-term patch extended the 0.5% Medicare update through 2014 – please note, providers will see a 0.5% cut in reimbursement starting January 1, 2015 – and delayed the 24% SGR payment cut through March 31, 2015. So once again, Congress will start the New Year having to act fast on an SGR bill – or jeopardize destabilizing the Medicare program.
While the above issues are on the ATS radar screen, I am confident 2015 will hold many more surprises and challenges for the pulmonary, critical care and sleep community. We will continue to do our best to share timely and accurate information with ATS members on billing, coding and regulatory compliance issues.
Sincerely,
Alan L. Plummer, MD
Editor
