General Surgery Coding Alert

Tired of shelling out hundreds of dollars a year to stay current on the National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) edit changes? You can now access quarterly NCCI updates free on the Internet.
 
In the past, CMS has made the NCCI edits available as a paid subscription only (by way of the National Technical Information Service). "But now," a CMS press release states, the edits "are available to anyone with a personal computer."
 
CMS has listed the edits in a spreadsheet format. You can sort edits by code number or by effective date, and the Web page includes a "find" feature to make locating a specific code easier. The on-line database also provides access to both the "comprehensive/component" and "mutually exclusive" code pair edits.
 
To view the online NCCI edits, go to the Web site http://cms.hhs.gov/physicians/cciedits/default.asp. The same Web page also includes links to documents that explain the edits, including the NCCI Policy Manual for Part B Medicare Carriers, the Medicare Carriers Manual, and an NCCI Question-and-Answer page.