Orthopedic Coding Alert

In the July 2000 Orthopedic Coding Alert article Use 1995 or 1997 Guidelines to Get Payment for E/M Services on page 52, we reported that many coders believed that the 1997 bullet-driven system of E/M coding would carry over into the much-anticipated new guidelines issued in July by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). But the story was published before the agency released the new rules, which are scheduled to take effect in 2002. To the surprise of many, the draft guidelines are, in fact, more of a return to the 1995 system of coding E/M services. The information contained in the article should not reflect poorly on the knowledge of the coding experts quoted in the article, as their information was correct when they were interviewed.