Documenting the various facts and figures is very much essential and unavoidable when you do a medical insurance claim. All data should be entered in a clear and precise manner. For this, the coder should be aware of the very many billing codes that are generally used during the procedural and diagnosis level. You can see the procedural codes in the CPT code book and the diagnosis codes in the ICD9 code books. Both are updated and published in a yearly basis. The CPT codes are published by the AMA (American Medical Association) from 1963 onwards and it was started because of the necessity of a standard to coding and terminology that was urgently needed.

Now from the passing of time 'medical coding' has become a complete arena by itself and these days you will be able to find many courses for teaching all about them. Almost all the insurance companies go by the individual codes and the coding industry has become of great importance. So we can see the true value of medical boding books and the significance of these books in the present world of medical insurance billing. Every year new version is given to these books and you must understand that insurance companies won't accept out-dated codes. If you by any chance happen to quote the out-dated codes there is every possibility of your claim getting denied!

Generally four categories of coding books are available like the CPT (Current Procedural Terminology), ICD9 (International classification of Diseases, HCPCS (Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System) and RBRVS (Recourse Based Relative Value Scale). You should be familiar with at least these four books in order to be a good and successful coder.

CPT code books contain the descriptions of the various services and procedures of physicians detailed using different CPT codes listed both in numerical and alphabetical way. Under each and every code, clear-cut explanations are given so that there are no ambiguities between the different services and procedures of physicians. Every year these codes are updated and coder should be aware of this fact. The CPT code books also contain a record of 'modifiers' which specify whether a service is modified or not. These AMA notified CPT modifiers are the 'two digit' numeric codes which are listed after the procedural codes.

As far as the ICD9 code books are concerned, they give the details of the coding system relating to the grouping and classifying of various diseases and covering the actual facts regarding them. Mainly these codes are employed in registering the incidence of medical diagnoses. Here also the listing is done both alphabetically and numerically and is updated annually.

HCPCS code books will give you the codes which are to be used with respect to the products, supplies and services which are not covered in the CPT code book. Some of the areas covered in this book are the ambulance services, durable medical equipments, and prosthetics/orthotics products. This code book also gives the coder an idea about the coding of the various materials which are used outside of the treatment place. This code book will be of much help to the insurance providers, the billing service centers who are doing the billing work for the providers, and agencies which offer services or supplies to the patient.

It is the RBRVS code book that determines the true value regarding the money paid to the medical facility providers including a physician is determined. Learning the latest version of RBRVS code book and acting accordingly is really a vital part in coding jobs. You must be always familiar with the renewed version of the RBRVS code book.



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