Effects on Measured Workload and Costs of Limiting CPT Codes in the NPCD SE File Technical rept. no. 15

摘要

The current programming rules for the creation of the SAS SE extract of the National Patient Care Data (NPCD) outpatient encounters database allows no repetition of Common Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes and sets a maximum limit of 15 CPT codes per record. However, the source Oracle database in Austin, from which the SAS extracts are created, contains an array that has a maximum of 500 CPT occurrences and that imposes no restrictions on repetition of CPT codes. To address concerns about the data currently excluded from the NPCD SE SAS extract, a special 10% random sample of the NPCD outpatient encounters data was created that allowed repetition of CPT codes and up to 500 CPT codes per record. This file was used to examine the implications of the current limits and to recommend potential changes. The analysis found that the current programming rules for the NPCD SE SAS extract exclude about 12% of the CPT codes in the Oracle database. Further, very few of the repeat uses of CPT codes within clinical encounters appear to be inappropriate. As a result of these findings, we recommend that changes be made to the programming rules that create the NPCD SE SAS extract.