Medical Billing (also known as RCM- Revenue Cycle Management) uses an alphabet soup of acronyms. Let's start by defining the codes used to build and bill medical claims.
- CPT - Current Procedural Terminology - codes used to report medical, surgical, and diagnostic procedures
- EIN - Employer ID number - a 9 digit number assigned by the IRS to identify businesses
- HCPCS - Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System - codes used to report products, supplies, and services not included in the CPT code set
- ICD-10 - International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition - codes used to report a patient diagnosis
- NDC - National Drug Code - a three-segment number used to identify finished, unfinished, and compounded drug products
- NPI - National Provider Identifier - a 10-digit code assigned to each provider (can also be assigned as a type 2 organizational NPI) used to identify who provided services to a patient.
- TIN - Tax-ID number - used by payers to ensure records are kept of who is paid and how much.