Medical codes are used to describe diagnoses and treatments, determine costs and reimbursements, and relate one disease or drug to another.
Patients can use medical codes to learn more about their diagnosis, learn more about the services their practitioner has provided, or even to doublecheck their billing from either their providers or their insurance or payer.
Here is a list of medical coding systems, and links to more information:
CPT Codes are Current Procedural Terminology Codes
These codes, developed by the American Medical Association, describe every type of service a healthcare provider may provide to a patient. They are used to make a list of those services, then to submit to insurance or Medicare or another payer for reimbursement purposes.
Patients may be interested in looking at CPT codes to double check their bills or negotiate lower pricing for their healthcare services.
Learn more: What Are CPT Codes?
HCPCS Codes - Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System
HCPCS Codes are used by Medicare. Level I HCPCS codes are identical to CPT codes. Level II HCPCS codes are additional codes not included in the CPT system like ambulance services, medical equipment or supplies used in hospitals. Level II codes usually describe services provided outside a doctor's office.
Patients who use Medicare, especially those who have needed ambulance services or other devices outside the doctor's office, may want to learn more about HCPCS codes.
Learn more: What are HCPCS Codes?
ICD Codes - the International Classification of Diseases
ICD Codes are maintained in the United States by the CDC, and internationally by the World Health Organization. ICD codes change over time, so they have a number appended to them to show which set of codes is being used. ICD-9 codes are often found in patient records. American doctors are now migrating to ICD-10 codes. ICD-11 codes will be in use by 2015.
ICD disease codes are found in vital patient records like death certificates or hospital records.
Learn more: What are ICD-9 or ICD-10 Codes?
ICF Codes for Disabilities
ICF codes are relatively new. They refer to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and they describe the outcomes of disability -- how functional a patient is in his environment. Learn more about ICF and its codes at the CDC website.
DRGs - Diagnosis Related Groups
DRGs -- Diagnosis Related Groups -- were developed by Medicare to group patients according to their diagnosis, type of treatment, age, and other criteria. When a patient is admitted to the hospital, the reimbursement from Medicare is based on the patient's DRG, regardless of what the real cost of the hospital stay was, or what the hospital bills Medicare for. The assumption is made that patients that fit the same profile will need approximately the same care and services. There are about 500 different DRGs.
Patients who fit one of these DRGs may want to review their hospital bill with this knowledge. The current list of DRGs is dated 2005 and is version 23. Learn more about DRGs from the American Hospital Directory.
NDC Codes - National Drug Codes
NDC Codes are found in the National Drug Code Directory. Since 1972, the FDA has required all prescription or insulin drug manufacturers to identify and report a unique, three-segment number for each of its products. The FDA maintains an updated list of these numbers on its website. It should be noted that just because the number is assigned, that does not mean the drug has been approved by the FDA.
If you are curious about this NDC for a drug you take, you can research it at the FDA website.
CDT Codes - Code on Dental Procedures and Nomenclature
CDT codes allow even dentists to get into the coding act. CDT refers to Code on Dental Procedures and Nomenclature.
DSM-IV-TR Codes for Psychiatric Illnesses
DSM-IV-TR codes are used to diagnose psychiatric illnesses. They are published and maintained by the American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV-TR stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision.
.............................
Learn more about all these codes sets at the National Institute of Health website.
