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Medical Coding Assessment Tools

Medical coding is the act of taking narrative descriptions of diseases and creating "codes" for them, made up of letters, numbers or a combination of both. In general, medical coding provides an easy method of identifying symptoms to look for, reporting what services have been provided to insurance companies, helping with overall administrative tasks and helping to identify the types of services that might need to be introduced in an area. Several assessment tools are available to help with medical coding.

  1. International Classification of Diseases

    • The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code book is a popular assessment tool for diseases that classifies diseases based on information from death certificates. It consists of 3 volumes: volume 1 is a tabular index of diseases, volume 2 is an alphabetical index and volume 3 consists of hospital procedures. The ICD also comes with a table of drugs and chemicals and a table of neoplasms, that is, abnormal tissues.

    Current Procedural Terminology

    • The Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT, code book provides codes for medical procedures performed by doctors and nurses. This coding system is maintained by the American Medical Association (AMA). These codes are used to report the work performed on a patient or the work performed by a hospital as a whole. The book consists of the CPT codes arranged in sections, including numeric, alphabetical and guidelines. The ICD code has a three-number system, while the CPT system has five numerals.

    Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System

    • The Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) is another widely used medical coding assessment tool. This tool has been in use since 1983 when it was developed as a way of organizing the coding systems used in the processing of Medicare claims. This system of coding has two levels, numbered I and II. Level I is just CPT codes, describing the work that is done by doctors. Level II describes supplies and materials used in the course of medical treatment. HCPCS codes are five digits long, usually starting with an alphabetical character.

    Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project

    • The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) is a family of healthcare databases developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare, Research and Quality (AHRQ), a part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. In addition to databases, the HCUP consists of several software tools. HCUPnet, for instance, is a free online query system that allows people to search the HCUP databases. Clinical Classification Softwares are used to classify diagnoses and procedures into categories easily.

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