News: FY 2019 ICD-10-PCS update released

CMS released the fiscal year (FY) 2019 ICD-10-PCS codes and guidelines last week. The updates take effect for discharges on or after October 1, 2018. This year’s update contains 392 new codes, eight revised titles, and 216 deleted codes. Last year, by contrast, saw 3,562 new codes, 1,821 revised titles, and 646 deletions.

The total number of codes in the FY 2019 ICD-10-PCS set will be 78,881, just edging out 2018’s 78,705.

This news comes even closer on the heels of the 2019 IPPS proposed rule than last year’s update. Last year, the proposed rule published in April and the PCS codes were released in July; the timeline has been protracted by nearly two months this year.

While there was little fanfare to the release, CMS has provided a number of resources surrounding the coding and guideline changes. There was no news as to when the FY 2019 ICD-10-CM update may be published, however.

Editor’s note: To download the various resource documents from CMS, click here. To read about the 2019 IPPS proposed rule, click here.