CPT codes?

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jan 2, 2006

Ha! Ha! I've been trying to find one for years. If they exist we wouldn't have to buy a new manual every year!

What do you need to know? I have a CPT manual here at home (I'm a coder as well as an RN) and I'll look them up for you.

highasthesky · Jan 2, 2006

[color="blue"thank you for your reply....i went to bed last night and didn't have time to check my email this morning, so just got to school early to borrow one of their books and finished up. i do need a book at home for practice, and our instructor suggested we stop by a docs office and ask for their old one because they have to get an updated one the first of each year (what she said anyway) but the two that i called acted like i was retarded for asking and said "we don't do that". ooooookkkkk, whatever. anyway, thank you for your response. i now know after one week of coding that it's not for me, i get so aggravated! but several students in our class enjoy it.

purplemania, BSN, RN · Jan 2, 2006

you might call an MD office or hospital clerk or look on your old receipt from the MD office (mine has a long list of codes that he just checks off).

highasthesky · Jan 2, 2006

I took your advice and called some more docs offices, finally got the 5th one to commit to hold it for me til tomorrow when I get by there to pick it up, yay! Also...one of my classmates just called and said they came across this site but I haven't checked it out yet to see if it's legit, but she said she looked up some codes on there. Sorry, I don't know how to do attachments, but heres the url in case anyone else would like to check it out. Thanks again for your help.

http://icd9cm.chrisendres.com

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2006

It's a nice site. However, I would only use it in the case you don't have a manual. I checked the code for hypertension and it only gave the first three numbers of the code, not the fourth digit. It never even mentioned that there were fourth and fifth digits that can follow the 401. So, this site is giving you the first three digits at least, but that is generally not enough for the majority of codes. In the actual manual there are 2 pages of hypertension codes placed on a two page table. This site did not include that table. So, I would be very careful about using this online source. Also, if you do not input the diagnosis exactly as you would find it in the coding manual you are not likely to get a correct code. Other places to get old coding manuals are outpatient clinics, x-ray clinics, and billing companies (if you know of one).

Yes, it's true. The ICD-9-CM manual must be changed every October 1st. It is also updated every April 1st. Changes are made to the codes every 6 months. This is an industry wide requirement and follows Medicare guidelines and American Hospital Association coding guidelines. All the insurance companies follow this standard as well.