Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Measles — once considered eliminated in the United States — is back with a vengeance and continues to spread across the nation, with another 75 cases added in the last week.

“From January 1 to May 10, 2019, 839 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 23 states,” says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1994 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.”

Because measles are common in other countries, the greatest risk to unvaccinated Americans comes from traveling to countries in the throes of outbreaks and from infected travelers to the U.S. Currently, there are Level 1 outbreaks in Brazil, Israel, Japan, the Philippines, and Ukraine, advises the CDC in its guidance for healthcare professionals.

Important: Healthcare providers must be at the forefront of educating the public and eradicating measles, recommends Robert Redfield, MD, CDC director. “I call upon healthcare providers to encourage parents, and expectant parents, to vaccinate their children for their own protection and to avoid the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases within their families and communities.”

Read the CDC updates for clinicians at www.cdc.gov/measles/hcp/index.html.

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