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| Jennifer Hunt, MD, MEd |
The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), Bethesda, Md, has submitted a proposal addressing CPT coding for genomic sequencing assays (GSAs) to the American Medical Association’s CPT Editorial Panel.
The proposal was developed by AMP’s Economic Affairs Committee, whose scope includes developing and advocating for sound economic policies that promote the provision of high-quality molecular pathology services.
“The report documents the challenges, related technology, and proposed coding scheme for GSAs,” says Jan Nowak, MD, PhD, who co-chairs the committee with Aaron Bossler, MD, PhD.
The committee is seeking feedback from AMP members and others with a vested interest in the coding framework.
The committee adopted the term GSAs “as a more general term with breadth enough to allow for future technologies and applications to be included under this heading” Bossler says.
The ability to so closely examine the human genome has and will continue to result in the need for countless new codes. The report includes two proposed schemes for coding GSAs:
[1] The technology-agnostic, single code strategy
[2] The Code Mate strategy
Option 1 relies on a single, methodology-agnostic code that includes both technical and interpretive work whereas option 2 introduces separate codes for technical versus interpretive processes.
Click here to view the full proposal.
With this new proposal for genomic sequencing assays, AMP follows on its 2011 white paper for CPT Coding molecular pathology tests. “We understand that laboratories throughout the US rely on AMP for molecular pathology expertise,” says Jennifer Hunt, MD, MEd, president, AMP.
Hunt says the organization is glad to provide the framework, and she encourage all stakeholders to provide feedback via e-mail at [email protected].
[Source: AMP]
