Thorwarth Appointed Chair of AMA CPT Editorial Panel
William T. Thorwarth Jr., M.D., former president of the American College of Radiology (ACR) and former chair of the ACR Economics Commission, was recently appointed chair of the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) Editorial Panel of the American Medical Association (AMA) by the AMA board of trustees.
Thorwarth is the first radiologist to chair this prestigious panel and only the fourth chair of the panel since its formation in 1966. He will begin serving his two-year term as chair at the conclusion of the October 2007 Annual Panel Meeting. He is eligible to be reappointed to an additional two-year term for a maximum tenure of four years as panel chair.
In addition to ACR president and chair of the ACR Economics Commission, Thorwarth has served in several ACR capacities, including president of the ACR Executive Committee, Board Nominating Committee, and Committee on Awards and Honors.
The AMA’s CPT® Editorial Panel is a multispecialty body responsible for maintaining CPT® nomenclature and code set. The Panel, appointed by the AMA’s board of trustees, is comprised of 18 members, including:· 11 physicians nominated by the national medical specialty societies and approved by the AMA board of trustees
· One physician each nominated from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the America's Health Insurance Plans, the American Hospital Association, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
· One performance measures representative (formerly a managed care seat) is chosen from nominees solicited from performance measures development organizations and appointed by the AMA board of Trustees
· Two members of the CPT® Health Care Professionals Advisory Committee (co-chair and one member-at-large)
Five members of the Editorial Panel serve as the panel’s Executive Committee. The Executive Committee includes the Editorial Panel chair and co-chair, and three panel members-at-large, as elected by the entire panel. One of the Executive Committee’s three members-at-large must be a representative from a third-party payer.
The Editorial Panel is supported in its work by the CPT® Advisory Committee, which is composed primarily of physicians nominated by the National Medical Specialty Societies represented in the AMA House of Delegates.
Currently, the Advisory Committee is limited to National Medical Specialty Societies seated in the AMA House of Delegates and to the AMA Health Care Professionals Advisory Committee, which both represent limited-license practitioners and other allied health professionals. Additionally, a group of individuals — the Performance Measures Advisory Committee — who represent various organizations concerned with performance measures, also provide expertise.
Richard Duszak Jr., M.D., chair of the Committee on Coding and Nomenclature, is the ACR’s CPT® Advisor to the Editorial Panel. One of the main objectives of Duszak and the Committee on Coding and Nomenclature is to ensure that the CPT® coding system keeps pace with the practice of radiology. It does this by continually reviewing the codes for radiology and radiation oncology and recommending changes to the Editorial Panel.
