Potentially New Codes Coming Your Way

Fall ICD-10-CM/PCS Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting kicks off today.

Today and tomorrow mark the dates for the next ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting. Health information management (HIM) and coding and clinical documentation integrity/improvement (CDI) professionals often wonder about what the Coordination and Maintenance Committee is and does, so this article will provide a look at this and offer information from several websites, plus the upcoming agenda topics.

The ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance (C&M) Committee website helps explain what its purpose is and how it functions. The Committee  is a “federal interdepartmental committee comprised of representatives from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS),”  responsible for “approving coding changes, developing errata, addenda and other modifications.” Requests for coding changes are submitted to the committee for discussion at either the spring or fall C&M meeting.

The Committee meetings provide a public forum to discuss proposed changes to ICD-10. The first day of the meeting is devoted to procedure code issues and is led by CMS. The second day is devoted to diagnosis code issues and is led by CDC. Tentative agendas for the meetings are posted one month in advance of the scheduled meetings. 

Coding proposal presentations are made at the C&M meeting, which describes the clinical issues and related procedures or technology. The participants at the meeting are encouraged to ask questions concerning the clinical and coding issues and to offer recommendations. Recommendations concerning proposed code revisions made both in person at the C&M meeting, and in writing before the end of the comment period, will be considered. Final decisions on code revisions are made through a clearance process within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). No final decisions are made at the meeting.

The ICD-10-CM diagnosis topics on the tentative agenda for this September are the following:

• Abnormal Neonatal Screening
• Pediatric Feeding Disorder
• Sickle Cell Disease
• X-Linked Myotubular Myopathy

The ICD-10-PCS inpatient procedure topics on the tentative agenda for this September are these:

• Intraoperative Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging of the Hepatobiliary System Using ICG    
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
• Cesium -131 Brachytherapy
• Intravascular Ultrasound-Assisted Thrombolysis for Pulmonary Embolism          
• Administration of Nerinitide
• Administration of Eladocagene Exuparvovec
• Administration of Zulresso
• Section X Updates
• Addenda and Key Updates

New procedure code recommendations can come from the private and public sectors, and there are steps to be followed for this. Go to the following website to access the instructions: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/newrevisedcodes.html

There are many ways to participate in the C&M meeting. Registration opened on Monday, Aug. 5, 2019, and closed on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019, for this week’s meeting. Participants attending by Livestream webcast or dialing in did not need to register online. The CDC and CMS have provided specific instructions for those who wish to attend via digital means:

• Day 1: Sept. 10, 2019: The meeting will begin promptly at 9 a.m. EST and will end at 5 p.m. Lunch will be held from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The meeting will be webcast via CMS at http://www.cms.gov/live/.
• Day 2: Sept. 11, 2019: The meeting will begin promptly at 9 a.m. EST and will end at 5 p.m. Lunch will be held from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The meeting will be webcast via CMS at http://www.cms.gov/live/.
• Toll-free dial-in access is available for listen-only participants who cannot join the webcast: Day 1, Sept. 10, 2019: Phone: 1-877-267-1577; Meeting ID: 995 481 510. Day 2, Sept. 11, 2019: Phone: 1-877-267-1577; Meeting ID: 995 481 510. We encourage you to join early, as the number of phone lines is limited.

Access Information

1. Please call the following number: WebEx: 1-877-267-1577
2. Follow the instructions you hear on the phone.
   Your WebEx Meeting Number: 995 481 510

 To join this meeting online

1. Go to https://meetings.cms.gov/orion/joinmeeting.do?MTID=4423d6f7140931b5ba8e54be839e38ad
2. If requested, enter your name and email address.
3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
4. Click “Join.”
5. Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.

For those attending in person (per my own personal knowledge, this is a terrific experience), the following instructions and requirements are provided below:

Those who wish to attend a specific ICD-10 C&M meeting in the CMS auditorium must be registered and on the meeting visitor list. This visitor list will be maintained at the front desk of the CMS building and used by the guards to admit visitors to the meeting. Those who attended previous Coordination and Maintenance meetings will no longer be automatically added to the visitor list. You must request the inclusion of your name prior to each meeting you attend.

Because of increased security requirements, CMS has instituted stringent procedures for entrance into the building by non-government employees. Persons without a government I.D. will need to show an official form of picture I.D. (such as a driver’s license), and sign in at the security desk upon entering the building. Information on registering online to attend the meeting can be found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/events/ 

The CMS website contains meeting materials at the following link:  https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD9ProviderDiagnosticCodes/ICD-9-CM-C-and-M-MeetingMaterials.html 

One bonus to the ICD-10 C&M is continuing education credit. Continuing education credits may be awarded by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) or the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) for participation in CMS ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance (C&M) Committee Meeting conference calls, meetings, and webcasts.

Once the meeting is completed, there will be minutes summarizing the presentations and comments.  Mark down the meeting dates and block time to participate, and then be sure to keep an eye out for the discussion documents, as they can be very insightful.