In January, the AASM announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the establishment of a physician specialty code for sleep medicine. The original approval letter from CMS indicated that the code would be established after October 2011.
In an email received Thursday September 8, staff from the CMS Provider Enrollment Operations Group notified the AASM that the establishment of the specialty code has been delayed. CMS staff cited system implementation issues, which will prevent the code from being established until April 2012.
The AASM will continue to keep members updated regarding this important issue via the Weekly Update. Once the specialty code has been established, members will be provided information about how to change their specialty information with CMS.
Coding Corner articles are archived on the Coding Page of the AASM website for future reference.
