Specialty Groups — Oncology
The ACOA 1-Minute Update inadvertently linked to last month’s Coding Minute. Here is the link to November ACOA Coding Minute.
Medical Oncology Code Changes
ACOA Coding Minute
| It’s that time of year when children think of Trick-or-Treat, teenagers prepare for Homecoming and coders find out about the CPT procedure codes. Following are the codes we know will be included in CPT 2005, but remember that the CPT Manual will include more information than the codes themselves! There are ‘parenthetical notes’ that accompany many procedure codes and provide information on how the code is intended to be used, what is included in the service, etc. New Category III procedure codes include: | |
| 0082T | Stereotactic body radiation therapy, treatment delivery, one or more treatment areas, per day |
| 0083T | Stereotactic body radiation therapy, treatment management, per day |
| In addition to new codes for 2005, the following codes have altered descriptors and will now read: | |
| 77418 | Intensity modulated treatment delivery, single or multiple fields/arcs, via narrow spatially and temporally modulated beams, binary, dynamic MLC, per treatment session
(Remember that code 0073T was released by the AMA on July 1, 2004, to describe compensator-based IMRT treatment delivery.) |
| 77750 | Infusion or instillation of radioelement solution (includes three months follow-up care) |
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The therapeutic nuclear medicine section of the CPT Manual has undergone major changes, with codes deleted, revised and the addition of new codes that describe technique (e.g., oral administration) rather than anatomic area. Of significance is the deletion of code 79900 [provision of therapeutic radiopharmaceutical(s)].
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Cindy C. Parman, CPC, CPC-H
principal and co-founder of Coding Strategies, Inc. in Atlanta, GA. Cindy is a current member of the Advisory Board for the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) and a faculty instructor for AMA Solutions, a subsidiary of the American Medical Association. She serves as the Consulting Editor of the Radiology Coding Alert and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of General Surgery Coding Alert and Pain Management Coding Alert.