AMA Wire

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013

This Week's News

CPT® codes to enhance NIH's public registry for genetic testing

CPT® codes to enhance NIHs public registry for genetic testing

A new agreement between the AMA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will make a public registry for genetic testing a more valuable resource for physicians.

Under the agreement, Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) codes for molecular pathology tests will be integrated into the NIH's Genetic Testing Registry (GTR), a centralized public source of information about genetic tests. The AMA-created CPT codes describe the latest advances in genetic testing and molecular diagnostic services, enabling physicians and others to report and track such services.

"CPT codes are a critical element to building an infrastructure that supports moving new genetic discoveries to the front lines of clinical care as we move into an era of personalized medicine," AMA President Jeremy A. Lazarus, MD, said in a news release. "Adding a CPT coding reference to the GTR gives physicians an invaluable information source that will enhance the reporting of genetic tests and services."

The GTR provides essential information about genetic testing, including test names, associated health conditions, the purpose of each test and the relevant genes. The registry is managed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a division of the National Library of Medicine at NIH.

While the AMA has been involved with coding solutions for molecular pathology services since 1998, more detailed CPT codes became effective in 2012 to capture and describe the latest scientific advances in this rapidly expanding field of medicine. The ongoing process has created more than 100 codes for reporting innovative diagnostic services, helping to advance the AMA's overarching goal of improving health outcomes, one of its three strategic focus areas.

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