The American Medical Association released updates to its medical codes for 2022 with many tied to new technology services and the administration of COVID-19 vaccines.
The AMA made 405 changes in the 2022 Current Procedural Terminology code set, including 249 new codes, 63 deletions and 93 revisions. The changes will take effect Jan. 1.
The CPT code set for 2022 incorporates a series of 15 vaccine-specific codes that are the model for efficiently reporting and tracking immunizations and administrative services against the coronavirus, the organization said.
Working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop vaccine-specific CPT codes, the AMA introduced the first codes in the series for use in November 2020 to clinically distinguish each coronavirus vaccine and dosing schedule for better tracking, reporting and analysis of patient vaccinations. These CPT codes were available prior to the public availability of the COVID-19 vaccines to facilitate updating of health care electronic systems across the U.S.
RELATED: AMA releases new CPT codes for coronavirus immunizations to prepare for vaccine rollout
“Data-driven planning and resource allocation is vital for effective immunization programs that will bring the coronavirus pandemic to an end,” said AMA President Gerald E. Harmon, M.D. in a statement “Correlating each coronavirus vaccine and dosing schedule with its own unique CPT code has provided necessary analytical advantages to help track, allocate and optimize resources for immunization programs across the United States.”
To help ensure accurate coding and reporting of COVID-19 vaccines and administration services, the AMA offers a vaccine code finder resource to help identify the appropriate CPT code combination for the type and dose of COVID-19 vaccine provided to each patient.
The CPT code set continues to see growth in new and novel areas of medicine with 43% of editorial changes tied to new technology services described in Category III CPT codes and the continued expansion of the Proprietary Laboratory Analyses (PLA) section of the CPT code set.
Other important additions to the 2022 CPT code set respond to the fast pace of innovation in digital medicine services that can improve health care access and enhance outcomes for patients across the country, according to AMA officials. This is illustrated by the creation of five new CPT codes to report therapeutic remote monitoring, an increasingly important avenue of patient care, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. These codes expand on the remote physiologic monitoring codes that were created in 2020.