Monday 17 April 2017

Use CPT Codes to Determine Doctor Fees

CPT codes can be used to assess the actual costs of a procedure in terms of the doctor’s fees. While medical billers and coders have access to this information already, the AMA allows non-professionals and students the ability to use a free CPT lookup for one procedure at a time. This is done through the CodeManager system on the AMA website, which allows patients to enter an existing CPT code to determine the procedure or treatment or look up a CPT code by entering the procedure, which will allow you to assess the cost paid by Medicare for this procedure in your area. In addition, you can also determine the average cost of this service throughout the U.S.

Step-by-Step process for looking up CPT codes

The steps for looking up the cost of a treatment or procedure using the CodeManager system are simple.
  1. Get Started. First, click the above link to enter the AMA CodeManager website.
  2. Agree to play by the rules. You will have to read and click an agreement that stipulates that you do not sell the information you receive from the website, and that the number of times you can use this service are limited. To continue, hit the “Agree” button.
  3. Specify your location. Next, the screen asks you to select the state and nearest city in which the procedure was performed,
  4. Specify your procedure. Enter either the CPT code or keywords that describe the medical treatment or procedure you wish to look up.
Your query may not return anything right away, so use these tips to search successfully:
  • Try a few different search terms. For example, if you were trying to determine the cost of surgery to remove a ruptured appendix, you could enter the keywords “appendectomy” or even just “appendix”, which would lead you to several possible procedures and their costs, including code 44960 for a simple appendectomy, as well as other codes describing unlisted procedures involving the appendix, examinations of that organ, and related surgical procedures.
  • Use medical terminology. In most cases, procedures and body parts are described by their medical terms, so while a search for “hip replacement” will give you no hits, a search for “hip arthroplasty” will give you several options of possible procedures. Of course, if you have the CPT code you can enter it outright and it will take you straight to the relevant procedure.
Note that in the costs column, the medical payment listed can either be “non facility” or “facility”, depending on where the procedure was conducted. Facilities include hospitals, including emergency rooms, ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), while non facility means any other setting, such as clinics or private practice offices. You may also notice that some procedures can only be conducted in a facility or non-facility setting, which means that the other column will have an “NA” or non-applicable label and no price.

Using RVUs to determine average costs

The medical payments listed are an average of the Medicare cost throughout the U.S. multiplied by the relative value amount (RVU) of a region, which may be higher or lower than 1.0. For example, the same procedure, such as an appendectomy (44950), is priced at $722.57 in Manhattan but only $642.29 throughout Arizona. This is due to the relative costs of goods and services in a region, and is reflected in CPU pricing.
It is also very important to note that the prices listed on the CodeManager website reflect the cost of a procedure paid by Medicare based on the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which is very close to its actual cost, though the prices patients or insurance providers are typically charged more to account for the costs of the facility and its staff; This is particularly true of private medical institutions.

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