Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting Wrap-Up

No final decisions are made at the Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting.

The Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting was held virtually on March 8 and 9, broadcasting from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) headquarters. CMS began the meeting with a review of the new process for requesting new inpatient procedure codes.  

CMS has done a soft launch of the Medicare Electronic Application Request Information System (MEARIS). This system will replace sending applications for new codes to the ICDProcedureCodeRequest@cms.hhs.gov email inbox. 

The CMS portion of the meeting moved forward with each topic scheduled for 15 minutes. Some topics did have time extended due to discussion, but the CMS portion wrapped before the end of the first day.

The following topics were reviewed:

1. Implantation of Sphenopalatine Ganglion Stimulator for Ischemic Stroke*
2. Gene Expression Assay**
3. Vertebral Body Tethering*
4. Section X Updates
5. Percutaneous Femoral-Popliteal Artery Bypass*
6. Computer-Assisted Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation*
7. Computer-Aided Analysis for the Detection and Classification of Epileptic Events*
8. Facet Replacement Spinal Stabilization Device*
9. Addenda and Key Updates
10. Insertion of Sacropelvic Fixation System*
11. Insertion of Implantable Vagus Nerve Stimulation System*
12. Insertion of Paired Vagus Nerve Stimulation System*
13. Percutaneous Venous Thrombectomy for Postthrombotic Syndrome*
14. Quantitative Flow Ratio for Non-invasive Intraprocedural Analysis of Cardiac Angiography
15. Application of Allogeneic Thymus Derived Tissue
16. Supersaturated Oxygen Therapy
17. Assistance with Precision Stimulation Software*

A single asterisk (*) indicates that the requestor has submitted an NTAP application for FY 2023. The double asterisk (**) indicates that the requestor intends to submit NTAP for FY 2024.

There were also 13 proposals on the topic of administration of medications/substances that were not presented. CMS has posted the information associated with these topics on their website.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began their diagnosis presentations on March 8 and continued the next day. In addition to the review of the Index and Tabular Addenda, there were 29 topics reviewed. These topics included the following:

1. Anal Fistula
2. Appendicitis with Generalized Peritonitis with or without Perforation
3. Bardet-Biedl Syndrome and Laurence-Moon Syndrome
4. Crohn’s Disease
5. Coma Due to Underlying Condition
6. Craniosynostosis and Other Congenital Deformities of Skull, Face, and Jaw
7. Desmoid Tumors
8. Encounter for Follow-Up Examination after Completed Treatment for Malignant Neoplasm
9. Encounter for Observation for Suspected Newborn Problem
10. Extraocular Muscle Entrapment
11. Foreign Body Sensation
12. Gadolinium Toxicity
13. Immunoglobulin G4-Related Disease
14. Impairing Emotional Outbursts
15. Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia
16. Insulin Resistant Syndrome
17. Intestinal Failure-Associated Liver Disease
18. LaFora Body Disease
19. Leukodystrophies
20. Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease with and without Pain
21. Metabolic Acidemia in Newborn
22. Non-Traumatic Peritoneal Hemorrhage
23. Parkinson’s Disease with OFF Episodes
24. Problems Related to Upbringing
25. Resistant Hypertension
26. Sickle-Cell Dactylitis and Vaso-occlusive Crisis
27. Social Determinants of Health
28. Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome
29. Wasting Disease (Syndrome) Due to Underlying Condition

The benefit of listening to the presentations is to understand the “spirit” of the codes. The presentations provide background information and the reason that each code is requested.   

No final decisions are made at the Coordination and Maintenance Committee meeting. The final list of diagnoses and procedures will be published by July 1 to give vendors an opportunity to incorporate the changes into their products. 

Comments are due by May 9 for the diagnosis codes and revisions for implementation on Oct. 1, 2023. The deadline for applications for the Sept. 13 and 14 meeting is June 10, 2022.

To review meeting materials such as slides and agendas, go HERE.

Programming Note: Listen to Laurie Johnson’s Coding Report every Tuesday on Talk Ten Tuesdays, 10 Eastern.