ObGyn Medicare and CPT coding changes that could affect your income in 2015

At least one, if not many, of the coding changes highlighted below is likely to modify the incomes of ObGyns in the upcoming year. Here, I outline the 2015 changes that are most likely to affect your practice to some degree.

Medicare changes kick off a melancholy 2015
Surgical global periods: A move to eliminate them is underway
I begin this article not with a new or revised code, but with an active proposal, which, if implemented, could adversely affect your surgical income in a few short years.

Starting in 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has indicated that it will change all surgical codes to 0-day global periods. They plan on starting by converting 10-day global codes to 0-day codes in 2017, and then move on to the conversion of 90-day global codes in 2018. This is being proposed because of an Office of Inspector General (OIG) finding that many surgeons are not providing the evaluation and management (E/M) services included in the surgical code; therefore, Medicare is reimbursing for surgical procedures at a higher rate than warranted. In addition, the number of assigned visits may no longer reflect current care protocols, which again may mean that Medicare is not paying appropriately.

The immediate effect of this proposal—which has been adopted in the final rule published in the November 13, 2014, Federal Register—would be a reduction in payment for the converted codes due to a decrease in the assigned relative value units (RVUs). In addition, surgeons would need to document and provide the level of service for all preoperative and postoperative care, which may lead some payers to begin scrutinizing both levels of service billed and frequency of visits before and after surgical procedures.

CMS is still looking for any additional comments from physicians on this conversion process and such comments can be submitted electronically through a link at www.regulations.gov. Reference the final rule as CMS-1612-FC in your reply.

Medicare reimbursements poised to decrease in April
The calendar year 2015 conversion factor will remain at $35.80 from January 1 through March 31, 2015, as mandated by section 101 of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014. This represents the amount that will be multiplied by the geographically adjusted RVU for a code to determine the final Medicare allowable per procedure or service billed. Effective April 1, 2015, the conversion factor based on the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula will be only $28.22—representing a 21.2% decrease—unless Congress acts to override this mandate.

Code bundling leads to lost Medicare compensation
Hysterectomy bundling. Effective October 1, 2014, CMS began permanently bundling anterior/posterior colporrhaphy and colpopexy procedures into all vaginal and laparoscopic-assisted hysterectomy codes. By permanently, CMS means that no modifier can be used to report Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code 57260 (anterior and posterior [A&P] repair) or codes 57280, 57282, 57283 (abdominal, and vaginal approach colpopexy procedures) separately when performed with a vaginal or laparoscopic-­assisted hysterectomy.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS) wrote to CMS in May with regard to these edits and objected to them strongly. These organizations will continue to work with CMS to get them removed. Until then, physicians who perform anterior/posterior colporrhaphy and colpopexy procedures with a vaginal or laparoscopic-assisted hysterectomy will need to clearly make a case in the operative report for the need to perform the additional procedures in order to add a modifier -22 (Increased procedural services) to the hysterectomy code for consideration of additional payment. If an A&P repair is performed, it would not be appropriate to bill only an anterior repair (CPT code 57240) or a posterior repair (CPT code 57250) to obtain some separate reimbursement as this would represent inaccurate coding.

Hysteroscopy bundling. Another edit that will affect ObGyns is the bundling of CPT code 58558 (Hysteroscopy, surgical; with sampling [biopsy] of endometrium and/or poly-pectomy, with or without D&C) into codes for hysteroscopic removal of a fibroid (58561) and the removal of an impacted foreign body (58562).

Previously, these codes could have been billed together, but now only the addition of a modifier -22 to the primary procedure (myomectomy or foreign body removal) presents any chance for additional reimbursement. In order to report the modifier, Medicare has indicated that the documentation must clearly support the additional work in accomplishing the primary procedure, including a statement of how much time it added to the normal procedure.

Awareness of new or revised CPT codes could benefit your earnings
The 2015 CPT code set includes several changes, including laboratory and vaccination codes, which may be of interest to your practice. Because of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements, insurers were required to accept new codes on January 1, 2015.