Oncology & Hematology Coding Alert

3 disease status codes get a facelift Just when you thought you had 2006 oncology demonstration project coding down pat, Medicare decided to revise three of the code descriptors, effective for services on or after Jan. 1, 2006:

- G9078 -- Oncology; disease status; prostate cancer, limited to adenocarcinoma as predominant cell type; t2 or t3a gleason 8-10 or psa > 20 at diagnosis with no evidence of disease progression, recurrence, or metastases

- G9125 -- Oncology; disease status; chronic myelogenous leukemia, limited to philadelphia chromosome positive and/or bcr-abl positive; blast phase not in hematologic, cytogenetic, or molecular remission

- G9127 -- Oncology; disease status; chronic myelogenous leukemia, limited to philadelphia chromosome positive and/or bcr-abl positive; extent of disease unknown, under evaluation, not listed (for use in a Medicare-approved demonstration project). Resource: Read Medicare's full instructions at www.cms.hhs.gov/Transmittals/downloads/R963CP.pdf.

More news: The June 27 Open-Door Forum also addressed the demonstration project. What you need to know: A nonphysician practitioner can code for the oncology demonstration project on an incident-to basis.