Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

CMS, along with the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), has released version 8.3 of the national Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) for the fourth quarter of calendar year 2002 (Oct. 1-Dec. 31). This latest CCI with nearly 55,000 code-pair revisions encompasses the largest number of changes since version 6.3 was published for the final quarter of 2000. Nevertheless, only a handful of changes will affect neurology practice.

The vast majority of new edits in version 8.3 of CCI involve the inclusion of about one dozen injection services to other, more extensive procedures. Fortunately, these injection services are not a regular part of neurology practice and therefore should have minimal impact on neurologists. Infusion code 90780 (Intravenous infusion for therapy/diagnosis, administered by physician or under direct supervision of physician; up to one hour), however, which neurologists may sometimes access, has also been bundled to hundreds of new procedures, including biopsy 20200-20206, injections 20550-20553, thrombolysis 37195, spinal punctures 62270-62273, and chemodener-vation 64612-64614 and 67345.

The above edits include a "1" status indicator, meaning that the edit pairs can be circumvented if the procedures are performed at separate anatomic sites and if an appropriate modifier (e.g., modifier -59, Distinct procedural service) has been appended to the component code.

The category defined as mutually exclusive by CCI (procedures not generally reported together due to the impossibility or improbability of performing them during the same session) contains no edits of interest for neurologists.

Likewise, CCI 8.3 contains no deletions in the comprehensive/component or mutually exclusive pair edits that affect neurology practice.

Note: Subscriptions for the quarterly CCI updates are available through NTIS (800-363-2068).