CPT v. DRG

Question

Answer

CPT stands for Current Procedural Terminology. These codes were developed over thirty years ago by the American Medical Association. The AMA, through its CPT Editorial Research and Development department, provides support for adding, modifying, and deleting CPT codes. The AMA issues a report annually to update the CPT Codes.

The DRGs are a patient classification scheme which provides a means of relating the type of patient a hospital treats to the costs incurred by the hospital, and provides a framework for Medicare's hospital reimbursement system. This data currently contains the DRG definitions as published in the August 29, 1997 Federal Register Vol. 62, No. 168. Updated annually in October.

References:

www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/3113.html
www.wisent.com/c_drg_drg08.htm

Dr. Ken Lowder is an audiologist in private practice in Coralville, IA. He also is the current Chair of the Audiology Foundation of America. He may be reached at lowderman@aol.com.