Talk Ten Tuesdays C&M Coverage Begins Today

Our weekly Internet radio broadcast will be bringing you wall-to-wall coverage of the vitally important CMS event.

Almost akin to a religious pilgrimage, many of this country’s coders are expected to make a virtual trek today to the Baltimore headquarters of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the Coordination and Maintenance (C&M) meeting, to listen to code proposals.

And, as in the past, Talk Ten Tuesdays, the long-running weekly Internet radio program produced by ICD10monitor, will provide front-row coverage of the two-day event that wraps on Wednesday. Returning to the broadcast coverage team Tuesday will be Linda Holtzman, a veteran C&M watcher and erstwhile participant. As the saying goes, “she has skin in the game.”

Holtzman, who accepted a volunteer assignment to be on the broadcast today, said she did so as a service to her coding colleagues. She also disclosed to ICD10monitor that she has worked on a proposal for extravascular implantable defibrillator leads. Holtzman, who founded Coding Clarity, is a consultant for Medtronic, the requestor on this topic.

A senior healthcare consultant with Revenue Cycle Solutions, Laurie Johnson, will also report on the C&M meeting, which is expected to begin from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST each day.

Registration for the event, according to Johnson, is required to receive continuing education credits.

Johnson added that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will lead the discussion on diagnosis code proposals, noting that there are 18 topics on the tentative agenda for the ICD-10-CM portion of the meeting, including the following:

1. Anal Fistula
2. Bicuspid Aortic Valve
3. Childhood Obesity
4. Cholestasis Pruritus
5. Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia (CCCA)
6. Epileptic Seizures Related to External Causes, Intractable
7. Eating Disorders
8. Fanconi Anemia
9. Flank Anatomical Specificity
10. Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia (FFA)
11. Gulf War Illness
12. Injection Drug Use
13. Lymphoma In Remission
14. Personal History of Colonic Polyps
15. Post-exertional Malaise/Post-exertional Symptom Exacerbation
16. Primary Care Nervous System Lymphoma
17. Sepsis Aftercare
18. Addenda

“There are nine New Technology Add-On Payments (NTAP) topics on the ICD-10-PCS agenda, which is led by CMS,” Johnson said, noting that CMS will not present the code requests for NTAPs involving the administration of a therapeutic agent during the meeting.

 The items on this agenda include the following:

1. Fluorescence-guided surgery using CYTALUX ® (Pafolacianine)
2. Administration of Glofitamab
3. Administration of Posoleucel
4. Administration of Rezafungin
5. Administration of SER-109
6. Administration of Sulbactam-durlobactam
7. Administration of Quizartinib
8. Administration of Elranatamab
9. Administration of Epcoritamab

Johnson said information on NTAPs can be found on the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) website, which includes background information on NTAPs and previous NTAP proposals, which are listed by annual meeting year.

“All code proposal presentations will cover the implementation time frame of the code,” Johnson said in an email to ICD10monitor. “The requestor may ask for an October 2023 or April 2024 implementation date.”

Comments on the proposals are due by April 7, 2023 for Oct.1, 2023 implementation. The results of the discussions will be included in the fiscal year 2024 IPPS Proposed Rule, which is expected to be released in the late April-to-early May time frame.

The new codes will be published by June 2023 for an Oct. 1, 2023 implementation.

Resources:

• Procedure code topics on March 7: See CMS ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee
• Diagnosis code topics on March 7– 8: See CDC ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee
• ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting Topic Packet