Current Procedural Terminology

The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code set is a medical code set maintained by the American Medical Association through the CPT Editorial Panel. The CPT code set (copyright protected by the AMA) describes medical, surgical, and diagnostic services and is designed to communicate uniform information about medical services and procedures among physicians, coders, patients, accreditation organizations, and payers for administrative, financial, and analytical purposes.

New editions are released each October. The current version is the CPT 2015. It is available in both a standard edition and a professional edition.

CPT coding is similar to ICD-9 and ICD-10 coding, except that it identifies the services rendered, rather than the diagnosis on the claim (ICD-10-CM was created for diagnostic coding- it took the place of Volume 3 of the ICD-9). The ICD code sets also contain procedure codes (ICD-10-PCS codes), but these are only used in the inpatient setting.

CPT is currently identified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as Level 1 of the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System.

The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) was developed by the American Medical Association (AMA).

There are three types of CPT code: Category I, Category II, and Category III.

Category I CPT Code(s). There are six main sections:

CPT II codes describe clinical components usually included in evaluation and management or clinical services and are not associated with any relative value. Category II codes are reviewed by the Performance Measures Advisory Group (PMAG), an advisory body to the CPT Editorial Panel and the CPT/HCPAC Advisory Committee. The PMAG is composed of performance measurement experts representing the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the American Medical Association (AMA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement. The PMAG may seek additional expertise and/or input from other national health care organizations, as necessary, for the development of Category II codes. These may include national medical specialty societies, other national health care professional associations, accrediting bodies and federal regulatory agencies.

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