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Journalists working on stories related to high-risk pregnancies or the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine can contact Greg Phillips, Director of Communications, at press@smfm.org for referrals to MFM experts and to request additional information. The press office is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM ET.

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Updated Interim ICD-10-CM Coding Guidance: Recommended Coding for COVID-19 and pregnancy
Updated Interim ICD-10-CM Coding Guidance: Recommended Coding for COVID-19 and pregnancy

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) Coding Committee; Steve Rad, MD; Trisha Malisch, CCS-P, CPC, Vanita Jain, MD The SMFM Coding Committee previously published interim coding guidance for encounters related to the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for maternal-fetal medicine... Continue Reading

Date posted04/3/2020


Coding for Telemedicine and Remote Patient Monitoring Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Coding for Telemedicine and Remote Patient Monitoring Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) Coding Committee; Steve Rad, MD; Dave Smith, CPC, MBA; Trisha Malish, CCS-P, CPC; Vanita Jain, MD The purpose of this document is to provide maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists interim coding guidance for telemedicine and remote patient monitoring... Continue Reading

Date posted03/18/2020


Interim ICD-10-CM Coding Guidance: Recommended Coding for COVID-19 and pregnancy
Interim ICD-10-CM Coding Guidance: Recommended Coding for COVID-19 and pregnancy

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) Coding Committee; Trisha Malisch, CCS-P, CPC; Steve Rad, MD; Vanita Jain, MD The purpose of this document is to provide interim diagnosis coding guidance for encounters related to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for maternal-fetal medicine... Continue Reading

Date posted03/13/2020


Billing for pregnancy termination or delivery at 20+ weeks gestational age
Billing for pregnancy termination or delivery at 20+ weeks gestational age

Starting at 20 weeks 0 days, the appropriate maternity care and delivery code (594XX) with the relevant diagnosis (e.g. O36.4XX_ maternal care for intrauterine death) is billed for pregnancy terminations (eg, D&E) and delivery. If applicable, you could also report 76988-26 for ultrasound... Continue Reading

Date posted03/1/2020


Abnormal findings on antenatal screening of mother
Abnormal findings on antenatal screening of mother

The ICD-10 O28 code series are used to describe abnormal findings on antenatal screening of mother as a reason for an encounter. The series includes O28.0 – O28.9. In order to better understand the O28 code series, the corresponding ICD-10 descriptors along with some additional notes and... Continue Reading

Date posted12/1/2019


Medical Necessity for Multiple Ultrasounds
Medical Necessity for Multiple Ultrasounds

The CPT code book clearly indicates that multiple ultrasound services that occur during a single encounter can each be reported separately. However, before payers will reimburse for multiple ultrasound services, the medical necessity of each service must be established. These four tips will help... Continue Reading

Date posted11/1/2019


How is gestational age assigned for coding and billing purposes?
How is gestational age assigned for coding and billing purposes?

Traditionally, gestational age is determined by the assigned “due date” or EDD (estimated date of delivery)/EDC (estimated date of confinement). The first day of the LMP (last menstrual period) is the first step in establishing the EDD. By convention, the EDD is 280 days after the... Continue Reading

Date posted10/1/2019


KCL Procedure MFM billing options when CPT code 59897 is not reimbursed
KCL Procedure MFM billing options when CPT code 59897 is not reimbursed

Performance of KCL intramniotic/intracardiac injection to arrest the fetal heart, prior to a termination procedure is a coding challenge. Common MFM practice is to provide the KCL injection into the fetal heart with ultrasound guidance only in the office or pre-operatively. In the majority of... Continue Reading

Date posted07/1/2019


Coding Obesity in Pregnancy
Coding Obesity in Pregnancy

If a patient has a diagnosis of obesity (BMI ≥ 30) O99.21__ (obesity complicating pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium) is an accepted indication for a detailed fetal anatomy survey (CPT 76811) according to published guidelines. To determine BMI in a pregnancy affected by obesity, we... Continue Reading

Date posted05/31/2019


Coding for Placenta Accreta Spectrum
Coding for Placenta Accreta Spectrum

Placenta accreta is defined as an abnormal invasion of all or part of the placenta into the myometrial wall of the uterus. Placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) is the more current terminology to refer to the range of abnormal placental invasion that includes placenta accreta, increta and percreta. ... Continue Reading

Date posted05/17/2019


Services billable outside of Global Obstetric
Services billable outside of Global Obstetric

The global maternity care package includes all the services normally provided in uncomplicated maternity cases. There are services that may or may not relate to the pregnancy which are outside of the Global OB care and should be reported separately. These include but not limited... Continue Reading

Date posted12/31/2018


How to Use Modifier 25 correctly
How to Use Modifier 25 correctly

Modifier 25 – this modifier is used to report an Evaluation and Management (E/M) service on a day when another service was provided to the patient by the same physician. In general, the patient’s condition will drive the indication for the separate E/M service that was provided in... Continue Reading

Date posted12/1/2018