AMA posts CPT 2024 code set

By Andrew Cass for Becker’s Hospital Review

The American Medical Association released updates Sept. 8 to its Current Procedural Terminology code set for 2024.

Five things to know:

1. The annual update to the CPT code set created 349 editorial changes, including 230 additions, 49 deletions and 70 revisions. 
2. AMA now offers Spanish language descriptors for more than 11,000 medical procedures and services to bridge language barriers and make healthcare more inclusive and transparent for Spanish-speaking patients.
3. Changes include the consolidation of more than 50 previous codes that streamline the reporting of immunizations for COVID-19. The CPT editorial panel also approved the provisional codes (91318-91322) to identify monovalent vaccine products from Moderna and Pfizer for immunization against COVID-19. A new vaccine administration code (90480) was approved for reporting the administration of any COVID-19 vaccine for any patient, replacing all previously approved product-specific vaccine administration codes
4. Five new CPT codes have been created to report product-specific respiratory syncytial virus immunizations (90380, 90381, 90683, 90679, and 90678).
5. The CPT editorial panel added revisions to clarify the reporting of evaluation and management services. These include: 
   • The removal of time ranges from office or other outpatient visit codes (99202-99205, 99212-99215) and alignment of the format with other E/M codes. 
   • A definition to determine the “substantive portion” of a split/shared E/M visit when a physician and nonphysician practitioner work together to furnish all the work related to the visit. 
   • Instructions for reporting hospital inpatient or observation care services and admission and discharge services for the use of codes 99234-99236 when the patient stay crosses over two calendar dates.

 The changes take effect Jan. 1, 2024. Read the full release explaining the updates and changes here.