The American College of Radiology® (ACR®) presented six codes to the American Medical Association/Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) for valuation during the Oct. 7–10 virtual meeting.
The following code families were discussed:
- X-Ray of bile Ducts.
- Needle Biopsy of Lymph Nodes.
Kurt Schoppe, MD, ACR RUC Advisor, and Lauren Golding, MD, ACR Alternate RUC Advisor, presented the codes, with assistance from Andrew Moriarity, MD. Ezequiel Silva III, MD, FACR, served as the Radiology RUC Panel Member. William Donovan, MD, MPH, was the Radiology Alternate Panel Member.
With the virtual meeting, the ACR was able to invite several guest physicians to observe the process. For Drs. Cindy Yuan, Elizabeth Levin and Ronald Mercer, who have expressed continued interest in the RUC process, this was their second or third meeting. For Shiva Gupta, MD, who has been working closely with the ACR coding staff and participating with the Current Procedural Terminology® Editorial Panel meetings, this was his first RUC meeting. Of his experience, Gupta shared this sentiment, “It was an honor to listen and watch the ACR RUC team strategize and deliver during the numerous virtual meetings leading up to and including the October 2020 Virtual RUC meeting. The ACR RUC team embodies an incredible amount of talent, ensuring radiologists are paid for the practice expense and work performed on a daily basis.”
The RUC-approved time and value recommendations discussed at the RUC are confidential. They will be shared with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for consideration in the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
The Jan. 2021 RUC survey cycle will kick off in November.
Please direct your questions to Stephanie Le at sle@acr.org or call 1-800-227-5463, ext. 4584.