Standardized medical procedure codes support health care insurance programs across the Gulf region
Standardized medical procedure codes support health care insurance programs across the Gulf region
Products & Services
What makes RVUs so important to CPT content?
American Medical Association - AMA
The American Medical Association has developed a two minute video introduction to the value of Relative Value Units (RVUs), a key element of the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®).
Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) International
American Medical Association - AMA
See how the CPT® code set enables health systems outside of the U.S. to elevate patient outcomes, manage costs and improve productivity to expand access.
CPT® International
American Medical Association - AMA
IMPROVES OUTCOMES
CPT codes drive standardization, interoperability and transparency to improve the quality of care.
INCREASES ACCESS
Modern and digitalized CPT codes help coordinate care, increase engagement and widen access to care.
LOWERS COSTS
Standardized measurement unlocks efficiencies, informs predictive analytics and helps planning and managing resources.
CPT codes drive standardization, interoperability and transparency to improve the quality of care.
INCREASES ACCESS
Modern and digitalized CPT codes help coordinate care, increase engagement and widen access to care.
LOWERS COSTS
Standardized measurement unlocks efficiencies, informs predictive analytics and helps planning and managing resources.
The CPT Editorial Panel
American Medical Association - AMA
What is CPT? The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) codes developed by the American Medical Association (AMA) are the language of medicine and the code to its future. This video gives you the meaning of CPT and the CPT Editorial Panel.
Medicare physician pay system needs a real fix—not more patches
American Medical Association - AMA
The AMA’s push to avert an 8.5% Medicare cut in the 2023 omnibus spending bill slowed down the wheels of a runaway train—but didn’t stop it completely. Physicians will still see a 2% cut in Medicare pay this year, with at least a 1.25% cut in store for 2024.
Throwing in patches and preventing cuts year after year after year is not sustainable, warned AMA Senior Vice President of Advocacy Todd Askew.
“We spend all our time trying to prevent a 2% cut, a 4% cut, an 8% cut. And nobody on Capitol Hill or within the administration is focused on fixing the root problem—and that's the payment system itself,” Askew said during a recent episode of “AMA Update.”
Askew also discussed why a 2% cut might force some practices to reconsider Medicare, underscoring the urgency of reforming the Medicare payment system.
Throwing in patches and preventing cuts year after year after year is not sustainable, warned AMA Senior Vice President of Advocacy Todd Askew.
“We spend all our time trying to prevent a 2% cut, a 4% cut, an 8% cut. And nobody on Capitol Hill or within the administration is focused on fixing the root problem—and that's the payment system itself,” Askew said during a recent episode of “AMA Update.”
Askew also discussed why a 2% cut might force some practices to reconsider Medicare, underscoring the urgency of reforming the Medicare payment system.
Implementation Framework
American Medical Association - AMA
The American Medical Association developed the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) Implementation Framework to support the understanding and successful adoption of CPT content. The downloadable Educational Handbook that explains the Framework is a resource to assist all audiences -- including leaders, teams, and individuals.
People
Description
The scale of health care demand in the Gulf Region has increased drastically over the last decade. Annual health insurance claims in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi show that utilization of health care services increased 99.3% between 2011 and 2020—and this was before the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated demand even further.
To successfully manage this continuing rise in demand, governments across the region are seeking to implement innovative, resilient and sustainable practices in public health and medicine. To achieve this, several governments have deployed standardized Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) content from the American Medical Association (AMA) in order to unlock greater efficiencies for local health care insurance programs.
In 2022, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in the Sultanate of Oman selected the CPT code set to support the newly launched electronic platform that automates the administration of Dhamani, a new mandatory national health insurance system. Similarly, the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH-AD) and Dubai Health Authority (DHA) in the United Arab Emirates have been using standardized CPT codes since 2011 to help streamline communications and reporting analytics within their entire heath care ecosystems. CPT serves as a common language that uses consistent and standardized procedural codes to enable communication between patients, health care providers, and private and public insurers to support each country’s reimbursement network and its government regulatory role.
Furthermore, the use of standardized CPT codes in the Gulf Region has enabled increased automation and efficiency through integrated digital systems such as eClaimLink established by Dubai Health Authority, Shafafiya by the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi and the Dhamani platform supporting the population of the Sultanate of Oman. Insurers, health authorities and medical practitioners in this region have a structured reimbursement system that enables the pre-approval of treatment more efficiently for patients -- encouraging greater access to treatment as demand for more care continues to grow.
The implementation of integrated systems and CPT codes enable health ministries to manage and monitor the localized payment rates for each medical procedure regardless of the care setting. Most CPT procedural codes are linked to Relative Value Unit (RVU) data, which offers an objective measurement of the resources required to perform a medical procedure. Based on the principle that payments for physician services should correlate directly with the resource costs for providing those services, the RVUs for CPT codes are updated regularly to support the modernization of medicine. The RVUs linked to CPT procedures enable health care professionals to combine the time, intensity and cost of care into single relative ranking scale for payment. These relative values are then converted locally by health ministries to support their goals of sustainably managing health care costs. To understand more about how RVUs deliver value to health systems, please watch this short two-minute video.
Governments across the Gulf Region rely on a globally recognized, evidence-based CPT code set that keeps pace with modern medicine. The CPT code set continues to serve the evolving needs of data-driven health systems of the Gulf Region that aim to innovate while controlling costs, improving quality and increasing access to care. CPT content helps maintain the affordability of healthcare services as governments expand and adopt innovative practices in public health and medicine, supporting them in their vision of building sustainable, resilient health care systems. The implementation of CPT code sets has supported the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi in driving innovative health care solutions such as supporting the Malaffi platform with the delivery of COVID-19 testing and vaccine codes to enable medical and governmental agility during Abu Dhabi’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
To successfully manage this continuing rise in demand, governments across the region are seeking to implement innovative, resilient and sustainable practices in public health and medicine. To achieve this, several governments have deployed standardized Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) content from the American Medical Association (AMA) in order to unlock greater efficiencies for local health care insurance programs.
In 2022, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in the Sultanate of Oman selected the CPT code set to support the newly launched electronic platform that automates the administration of Dhamani, a new mandatory national health insurance system. Similarly, the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH-AD) and Dubai Health Authority (DHA) in the United Arab Emirates have been using standardized CPT codes since 2011 to help streamline communications and reporting analytics within their entire heath care ecosystems. CPT serves as a common language that uses consistent and standardized procedural codes to enable communication between patients, health care providers, and private and public insurers to support each country’s reimbursement network and its government regulatory role.
Furthermore, the use of standardized CPT codes in the Gulf Region has enabled increased automation and efficiency through integrated digital systems such as eClaimLink established by Dubai Health Authority, Shafafiya by the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi and the Dhamani platform supporting the population of the Sultanate of Oman. Insurers, health authorities and medical practitioners in this region have a structured reimbursement system that enables the pre-approval of treatment more efficiently for patients -- encouraging greater access to treatment as demand for more care continues to grow.
The implementation of integrated systems and CPT codes enable health ministries to manage and monitor the localized payment rates for each medical procedure regardless of the care setting. Most CPT procedural codes are linked to Relative Value Unit (RVU) data, which offers an objective measurement of the resources required to perform a medical procedure. Based on the principle that payments for physician services should correlate directly with the resource costs for providing those services, the RVUs for CPT codes are updated regularly to support the modernization of medicine. The RVUs linked to CPT procedures enable health care professionals to combine the time, intensity and cost of care into single relative ranking scale for payment. These relative values are then converted locally by health ministries to support their goals of sustainably managing health care costs. To understand more about how RVUs deliver value to health systems, please watch this short two-minute video.
Governments across the Gulf Region rely on a globally recognized, evidence-based CPT code set that keeps pace with modern medicine. The CPT code set continues to serve the evolving needs of data-driven health systems of the Gulf Region that aim to innovate while controlling costs, improving quality and increasing access to care. CPT content helps maintain the affordability of healthcare services as governments expand and adopt innovative practices in public health and medicine, supporting them in their vision of building sustainable, resilient health care systems. The implementation of CPT code sets has supported the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi in driving innovative health care solutions such as supporting the Malaffi platform with the delivery of COVID-19 testing and vaccine codes to enable medical and governmental agility during Abu Dhabi’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
