News

Obstetric Care Professionals Urge: The Time for Influenza Vaccination is Now

Flu season is here, and many parts of the country are already seeing unprecedented levels of influenza-like illness and confirmed influenza infection. That is why, collectively, the American Academy of Family Physicians; American College of Nurse-Midwives; American College of Obstetricians and... Continue Reading

Ultrasound Storage of Images and Documentation Within Reports

Coding Tip: Ultrasound Storage of Images and Documentation Within Reports Complete documentation of work performed is a central tenet of optimal care and communication between medical teams. The ultrasound report serves as an instrument of communication between providers and acts as... Continue Reading

Billing Scenarios for imaging and aneuploidy screening in the first trimester

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) Coding Committee: Vanita Jain, MD; Amie Hollard, MD; Steve Rad MD; Trish Malisch, CCS-P, CPC; Fadi Bsat, MD. Testing for chromosome abnormalities should be an informed patient choice, based on information from a medical provider accounting for the... Continue Reading

Aneuploidy Screening in Twin Pregnancies

Brar B, Iriye B, and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine Practice Management & Coding Committees The Problem Over the last four decades, twin pregnancies have increased from 18.9 per 1,000 births in 1980 to 32.6 per 1,000 births in 2018. (1) With this increase in incidence... Continue Reading

Coding Obesity in Pregnancy - Updated

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

Utah medical professionals support the right to legal abortion

Utah law removes women from their proper role as decision makers Comprehensive reproductive health care includes abortion care. There is ample evidence that timely access to safe and legal abortion improves health outcomes, and barriers to access worsen outcomes. These harms have an especially... Continue Reading

SMFM Joined 75+ Health Care Groups to Oppose Legislative Interference in Patient-Clinician Affairs

Washington, D.C.—The following is a statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association, joined by the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine; American Academy of Family Physicians; American Academy of Nursing; American Academy of... Continue Reading

Maternal Health Specialists Issue Joint Statement on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

As organizations representing health care professionals specializing in the provision of maternal care, we join together to denounce the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This decision promises to severely limit many of our members' ability to provide high-quality,... Continue Reading

Pregnancy Experts Warn, Restricting Access to Abortion Care Harms Women and Families

June 24, 2022, Washington, DC – The Society for Maternal-Fetal (SMFM) released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case in which the State of Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to uphold its 15- week... Continue Reading

New ICD-10 Codes: Underimmunization for COVID-19 status

Effective April 1, 2022, there is a new series of ICD-10 codes for COVID-19 (Z28.31__) that was created to indicate that a patient is unvaccinated or ‘under-immunized’. There is also a new code (effective 4/1/2022) to identify patients who are ‘under-immunized’ status for... Continue Reading

SMFM Responds to Leaked Supreme Court Documents Suggesting the Court Will Roll Back Abortion Rights

Washington, DC – The Society for Maternal-Fetal (SMFM) released the following statement in response to news reports that the Supreme Court will strike down Roe v. Wade, which guarantees federal constitutional protections to abortion and a subsequent decision – Planned Parenthood v.... Continue Reading

Guidance for Performance of a PR Interval

In response to recent questions, this month’s Coding Tip is focused upon updating coding guidance for when a PR interval is performed. This Coding Tip is an update from prior guidance on this topic published in July 2017. The PR interval is often performed in attempt to identify early forms... Continue Reading