CPT Medical Codes for 2000
Be Aware of Changes in Current Procedural Terminology

With the first of the year comes New Year's resolutions, bargain-basement sales, and, for the professional massage therapist, revised CPT codes. Herein is an overview of changes therapists need to be aware of for the year 2000.

Basic CPT Understandings
CPT is the acronym for Current Procedural Terminology - simply put, procedure codes. In practice, you should not use a code for which your certifications do not provide training and experience. The codes are certificate/training driven.

CPT codes are written to describe a procedure. Some CPT codes describe procedures which are exclusive to a specific modality of work, while others describe procedures which are more general and may be used by several different modalities. It is the responsibility of the therapist to use the correct codes for their therapeutic work. Today, there are several choices available for learning more about billing and CPT codes.

The official CPT Manual is published by the American Medical Association (AMA). All CPT codes which can be used by a massage therapist are found in the Physical Medicine section of that manual. If you have additional certifications or training which would qualify you for use of codes not in the Physical Medicine section, those who teach those certifications ought to provide you the appropriate codes for the training they are doing. All of the Physical Medicine codes begin with the prefix "970."

CPT for 2000
The CPT and ICD (International Classification of Disease) 9 CM codes for the year 2000 will remain the same as those in 1999. Revision of ICD 9 to ICD 10 has been delayed. Look for the ICD 10 to come out in 2001. Those who do insurance billing frequently enough now know that CPT code 97250 was deleted in 1999. At this time, its use has been discontinued by all insurances.

The following CPT codes are those which this author considers to be legitimate CPT codes for massage therapists to use for the year 2000. There is disagreement regarding the selection and use of some codes. This article will identify those codes in question specifically. If those codes are eliminated, the remaining codes are unquestionably valid for licensed massage therapists nationally.
¥ 97010 - Application of a modality to one or more areas; hot or cold packs.
¥ 97001 - Physical therapy evaluation (See end note).
¥ 97002 - Physical therapy re-evaluation (See end note).
¥ 97124 - Therapeutic procedure, one or more areas, each 15 minutes; massage, including effleurage, petrissage, and/or tapotement (stroking, compression, percussion). This code is used to report work to workers' compensation. Your state workers' compensation department will supply a manual with the CPT codes accepted for massage therapy. Some still use this code to report therapeutic massage work. That's okay if the insurances accept it.
¥ 97139 - Therapeutic procedure, one or more areas, each 15 minutes; unlisted therapeutic procedure (specify). This code requires a written report. It might be used for cranial-sacral therapy or other modalities which do not "fit" the other codes.
¥ 97140 - Manual therapy techniques (i.e., mobilization/manipulation, manual lymphatic drainage, manual traction); each 15 minutes. This is the code recommended for all therapeutic work. This code is used in place of 97250.

CPT Codes to Avoid
¥ 97112 - Therapeutic procedure, one or more areas, each 15 minutes; neuromuscular re-education of movement, balance, co-ordination, kinesthetic sense, posture and proprioception. In this author's opinion, CPT code 97112 is not the code for neuromuscular therapy. Other coding experts see a portion of this code as being appropriate for massage therapists. In my discussions with the department head of a college Physical Therapy Association program, this code was described as a form of assisted stretching which students learn through two weeks of training and reading at least two chapters in their texts.
¥ 99000 - Do not use any code starting with 99. Some massage therapists may be using codes which start with 99 to report evaluation. These codes are for those who have training and are certified to do evaluation procedures, including decision-making regarding mortality and morbidity. This requires a level of training far beyond any training program I know of, outside of medical school training for physicians.

Deleted Codes
Codes may change yearly, or from time to time, are deleted. If you do billing for therapeutic purposes you need to have a source for the current CPT codes. CPT code 97250 was introduced in 1995 and deleted in 1999. In 1998, CPT codes 97001 and 97002 were added. In the year 2000, no new CPT codes have been introduced or deleted.

Since it is your responsibility as the therapist to use the correct code, you must either buy the AMA's CPT Manual, read articles like this each year, or find sources for coding which keep you up-to-date (See Bibliography).

Bibliography
The Medical Code Manual for Massage Practitioners by Ed Denning and Deborah Hecht. $24.95. Call 800/479-7295.
The Insurance Reimbursement Manual by Christine Rosche. $69.95. Call 800/888-1516.
Business Mastery by Cherie Sohnen-Moe. $24.95. Call 800/786-4774.
American Medical Association CPT Manual. $48.00. Contact Medical Arts Press, 800/328-2179.

Note: The American Physical Therapy Association considers 97001 and 97002 to be codes for physical therapists only. This author, in consultation with the AMA, disagrees. However, some states may have laws which prohibit the use of the terms "physical therapy" by anyone other than licensed physical therapists. Check with your state's physical therapy association before using either of these codes.

Ed Denning, coordinator of the Massage Therapy Program at Stark State College of Technology, is a member of the Ohio Massage School's Council and is on the Ohio State Medical Board's Massage Therapy Advisory Committee. He is a past president of the Ohio State Massotherapy Association. Denning may be contacted via phone, 800/479-7295; or e-mail, edenning@sssnet.com.

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