Re: Questions about CPT codes

[Guest guest]

I use a FREE online service for obscure ICD9s and a handheld quickie viewcard of the top 300 or so by my desk. I mostly have them memorized so I never have to look much anymore.The online thing is at    icd9cm.christendres.comPamelaPamela Wible, MDFamily & Community Medicine, LLC3575 st. #220 Eugene, OR 97405roxywible@...On Feb 17, 2006, at 11:25 AM, wrote: Hello everyone, After a nearly three week silence due to email trauma by electric shock, I have a question for the group about common CPT codes, again. Maybe I am too cheap, but I have a problem spending money on a CPT book when it seems this information should be available online for free. I have not found it. Does anyone have any suggestions for this? I also do not relish buying a large book that goes out of date every year or sooner. I found on the Ingenix website something called: 2006 CPT® Fast Finder Family Practice - ONLINE It seems like a handy, relatively cheap, $25, version of what I am looking for: the essential or most common codes in family practice. I plan to use this source not only for coding, which my EMR helps with, too, but to hold it up to Medicare figures for reimbursement to figure my fee schedule. Any thoughts, suggestions, or whatever, including the likely statement that I am too cheap, will be appreciated. Thanks, Charlie Vargas lin, NC

[Guest guest]

You would be surprised what you can find by simply goggling it and

add cpt , j or what ever type of code you are looking for. For me

it is quit simple to just minimize what I am working on and jump on

IE.

Brent

>

> Hello everyone,

>

> After a nearly three week silence due to email trauma by electric

shock, I have a question for the group about common CPT codes, again.

>

> Maybe I am too cheap, but I have a problem spending money on a CPT

book when it seems this information should be available online for

free. I have not found it. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

>

> I also do not relish buying a large book that goes out of date

every year or sooner.

>

> I found on the Ingenix website something called:

>

> 2006 CPT® Fast Finder Family Practice - ONLINE

>

> It seems like a handy, relatively cheap, $25, version of what I am

looking for: the essential or most common codes in family practice.

I plan to use this source not only for coding, which my EMR helps

with, too, but to hold it up to Medicare figures for reimbursement

to figure my fee schedule.

>

> Any thoughts, suggestions, or whatever, including the likely

statement that I am too cheap, will be appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Charlie Vargas

> lin, NC

>

[Guest guest]

You would be surprised what you can find by simply goggling it and

add cpt , j or what ever type of code you are looking for. For me

it is quit simple to just minimize what I am working on and jump on

IE.

Brent

>

> Hello everyone,

>

> After a nearly three week silence due to email trauma by electric

shock, I have a question for the group about common CPT codes, again.

>

> Maybe I am too cheap, but I have a problem spending money on a CPT

book when it seems this information should be available online for

free. I have not found it. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

>

> I also do not relish buying a large book that goes out of date

every year or sooner.

>

> I found on the Ingenix website something called:

>

> 2006 CPT® Fast Finder Family Practice - ONLINE

>

> It seems like a handy, relatively cheap, $25, version of what I am

looking for: the essential or most common codes in family practice.

I plan to use this source not only for coding, which my EMR helps

with, too, but to hold it up to Medicare figures for reimbursement

to figure my fee schedule.

>

> Any thoughts, suggestions, or whatever, including the likely

statement that I am too cheap, will be appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Charlie Vargas

> lin, NC

>

[Guest guest]

Doesn't your EMR have the ICD-9 and CPT codes in it? Ours updates automatically

every year so those hardbound books are almost obsolete for my purposes. The

only time I use them is when I can't figure out what name to put in to find the

corresponding code (ie, there is not a code for " nasal congestion " so you end

up looking it up to find 478.1). If your EMR does not have the codes then I

think I would agree that the online version you mention would be nice.

>

>

> Date: 2006/02/17 Fri PM 02:25:05 EST

> To:

> Subject: Questions about CPT codes

>

> Hello everyone,

>

> After a nearly three week silence due to email trauma by electric shock, I

have a question for the group about common CPT codes, again.

>

> Maybe I am too cheap, but I have a problem spending money on a CPT book when

it seems this information should be available online for free. I have not found

it. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

>

> I also do not relish buying a large book that goes out of date every year or

sooner.

>

> I found on the Ingenix website something called:

>

> 2006 CPT® Fast Finder Family Practice - ONLINE

>

> It seems like a handy, relatively cheap, $25, version of what I am looking

for: the essential or most common codes in family practice. I plan to use this

source not only for coding, which my EMR helps with, too, but to hold it up to

Medicare figures for reimbursement to figure my fee schedule.

>

> Any thoughts, suggestions, or whatever, including the likely statement that I

am too cheap, will be appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Charlie Vargas

> lin, NC

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Doesn't your EMR have the ICD-9 and CPT codes in it? Ours updates automatically

every year so those hardbound books are almost obsolete for my purposes. The

only time I use them is when I can't figure out what name to put in to find the

corresponding code (ie, there is not a code for " nasal congestion " so you end

up looking it up to find 478.1). If your EMR does not have the codes then I

think I would agree that the online version you mention would be nice.

>

>

> Date: 2006/02/17 Fri PM 02:25:05 EST

> To:

> Subject: Questions about CPT codes

>

> Hello everyone,

>

> After a nearly three week silence due to email trauma by electric shock, I

have a question for the group about common CPT codes, again.

>

> Maybe I am too cheap, but I have a problem spending money on a CPT book when

it seems this information should be available online for free. I have not found

it. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

>

> I also do not relish buying a large book that goes out of date every year or

sooner.

>

> I found on the Ingenix website something called:

>

> 2006 CPT® Fast Finder Family Practice - ONLINE

>

> It seems like a handy, relatively cheap, $25, version of what I am looking

for: the essential or most common codes in family practice. I plan to use this

source not only for coding, which my EMR helps with, too, but to hold it up to

Medicare figures for reimbursement to figure my fee schedule.

>

> Any thoughts, suggestions, or whatever, including the likely statement that I

am too cheap, will be appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Charlie Vargas

> lin, NC

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I have the same problem of keeping the codes updated in my

home grown EMR. These are some of the sites I've found

helpful:

This site has a nice free CPT code look up feature:

http://www.eicd.com/eHCPCSSearch.htm

The AMA also has a site where you can look up codes

by a description, or if you want to see the

allowable charges for your area and already know

the code, it can be used for that:

https://catalog.ama-assn.org/Catalog/cpt/cpt_search.jsp

One of the reasons you can't find CPT codes online for free

very easily is that they are proprietary, owned by the AMA, which

only licenses them to be used by the Government and other groups. So

people that have web sites will get into hot water with the AMA if

they re-distribute CPT codes without permission. Plus a lot of these

companies make their money by charging you for the CPT books or

computerized versions of them.

Some sites have sort of inadvertently released the CPT codes by

showing them as part of some service. For example this site which is

provided by Perdue Univ. for their staff to look up maximum allowable

charges has all the CPT codes and you could copy them off their site

and paste them into your own file if you wanted to (not that I'm

advocating bypassing the AMA)

http://www.purdue.edu/hr/Benefits/mac.htm

Besides the CPT codes, you also need the HCPCS level 2 codes - those

are the ones like the " J " codes and the " G " codes. Those are not part

of the AMA CPT codes. They call them the " HCPCS alphaneumeric " codes

because they have the letters as well as just numbers like the CPT

codes do. You can get those at this site:

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hcpcsreleasecodesets/downloads/06anweb_v3.zip

Unzip it and there is a file 06anweb_v3.xls which is an Excel

spreadsheet file with all the " G " and " J " codes.

ICD-9 codes are different, I think they are public property, so

you can find downloadable files with all the ICD-9 codes in various

formats in a lot of places on the web.

http://www.eicd.com

also has a good free look up utility for the ICD-9 codes

Caldwell M.D.

Tulare, CA

>

> Hello everyone,

>

> After a nearly three week silence due to email trauma by electric

shock, I have a question for the group about common CPT codes, again.

>

> Maybe I am too cheap, but I have a problem spending money on a CPT

book when it seems this information should be available online for

free. I have not found it. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

>

> I also do not relish buying a large book that goes out of date every

year or sooner.

>

> I found on the Ingenix website something called:

>

> 2006 CPT® Fast Finder Family Practice - ONLINE

>

> It seems like a handy, relatively cheap, $25, version of what I am

looking for: the essential or most common codes in family practice. I

plan to use this source not only for coding, which my EMR helps with,

too, but to hold it up to Medicare figures for reimbursement to figure

my fee schedule.

>

> Any thoughts, suggestions, or whatever, including the likely

statement that I am too cheap, will be appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Charlie Vargas

> lin, NC

>

[Guest guest]

When I was starting my practice, my medical consultant recommended I keep

each year's CPT book for several years to keep a record of what the CPT

codes were for that year. This is in case the insurance companies question

the CPT codes I used, I could show them the then current codes. This may

not be relevant to you, as I understand you have a cash-only practice. I

buy mine each year, for ~$60.

A. Eads, M.D.

Pinnacle Family Medicine, PLLC

phone fax

P.O. Box 7275

Woodland Park, CO 80863

Questions about CPT codes

Hello everyone,

After a nearly three week silence due to email trauma by electric shock, I

have a question for the group about common CPT codes, again.

Maybe I am too cheap, but I have a problem spending money on a CPT book when

it seems this information should be available online for free. I have not

found it. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

I also do not relish buying a large book that goes out of date every year or

sooner.

I found on the Ingenix website something called:

2006 CPTR Fast Finder Family Practice - ONLINE

It seems like a handy, relatively cheap, $25, version of what I am looking

for: the essential or most common codes in family practice. I plan to use

this source not only for coding, which my EMR helps with, too, but to hold

it up to Medicare figures for reimbursement to figure my fee schedule.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or whatever, including the likely statement that

I am too cheap, will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Charlie Vargas

lin, NC

[Guest guest]

When I was starting my practice, my medical consultant recommended I keep

each year's CPT book for several years to keep a record of what the CPT

codes were for that year. This is in case the insurance companies question

the CPT codes I used, I could show them the then current codes. This may

not be relevant to you, as I understand you have a cash-only practice. I

buy mine each year, for ~$60.

A. Eads, M.D.

Pinnacle Family Medicine, PLLC

phone fax

P.O. Box 7275

Woodland Park, CO 80863

Questions about CPT codes

Hello everyone,

After a nearly three week silence due to email trauma by electric shock, I

have a question for the group about common CPT codes, again.

Maybe I am too cheap, but I have a problem spending money on a CPT book when

it seems this information should be available online for free. I have not

found it. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

I also do not relish buying a large book that goes out of date every year or

sooner.

I found on the Ingenix website something called:

2006 CPTR Fast Finder Family Practice - ONLINE

It seems like a handy, relatively cheap, $25, version of what I am looking

for: the essential or most common codes in family practice. I plan to use

this source not only for coding, which my EMR helps with, too, but to hold

it up to Medicare figures for reimbursement to figure my fee schedule.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or whatever, including the likely statement that

I am too cheap, will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Charlie Vargas

lin, NC