ASCO’s Coverage and Reimbursement Steering Group presented a poster on utilization of advance care planning (ACP) services at the ASCO Quality Care Symposium. The poster examined whether Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) codes for ACP services are regularly utilized by hematology and oncology physicians and provided guidance on best practices for successful reimbursement for these services.
Though ACP is an integral part of cancer care, the poster concludes that the codes for such services are not frequently reported to Medicare as a separate service. This may be due to a lack of awareness or understanding of ACP codes and/or uncertainty as to how to implement these services into the workflow of a practice.
To increase utilization and ensure appropriate reporting of ACP, the poster suggests oncologists and oncology practices receive coding and reporting education and guidance on administrative processes to successfully manage ACP services.
The poster was also published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology at https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.2020.39.28_suppl.25.
ASCO offers a practice administration and reimbursement guide to assist practices in administering, recording, and being reimbursed for ACP services. Practices may use this guide, available at https://practice.asco.org/sites/default/files/drupalfiles/2021-08/ACP-Services-Resource-2021-08-06.pdf, to help establish a dedicated advance care planning service.
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