Over a period of
time the medical industry faced increasingly sophisticated
and complex procedures in the science of medicine. Improvements
and refinements in these procedures were constantly
developed and utilized, but physicians, in their statements
for professional services, found it difficult to explain,
the differences and refinements in procedures and to
distinguish one procedure from another. Some providers
furnished the same description for different services
while others furnished different descriptions for the
same services. The resulting confusion and uncertainty
led to delayed or inequitable payments, creating dissatisfaction
among consumers, payers and physicians themselves.
Added to this, the growing involvement of computers
made it apparent that some method had to be devised
to describe the enormous numbers and kinds of medical
and surgical procedures, complaints and diagnoses, so
that a code number can be assigned to them to facilitate
accurate and rapid determination of the nature and value
of the service performed. Following the theory that
“necessity is the mother of invention”, this is where
the medical coding system evolved.
Two types of coding systems have thus evolved: the first
is Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and the second
is International Classifications of Diseases (ICD).
|