Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System
Overview
The Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) is a set of health care procedure codes based on the American Medical Association's Current Procedural Terminology (CPT). Commonly pronounced Hick-Picks.
The Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) was established in 1978 to provide a standardized coding system for describing the specific items and services provided in the delivery of health care. Such coding is necessary for Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurance programs to ensure that insurance claims are processed in an orderly and consistent manner. Initially, use of the codes was voluntary, but with the implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) use of the HCPCS for transactions involving health care information became mandatory.[1]
HCPCS includes two levels of codes:
- Level I consists of the American Medical Association's Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and is numeric.
- Level II codes are alphanumeric and primarily include non-physician services such as ambulance services and prosthetic devices.[2]
The acronym HCPCS originally stood for HCFA Common Procedure Coding System, as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) was previously (before 2001) known as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA).