Contributory elements

Parts of documentation that confirm the selection of procedure codes for evaluation and management (E/M) services but may not be of sufficient quantity to make a change in code selection. An exception is if counseling or coordination of care requires more than half the intraservice time for the encounter, then time is used to determine the code selection when billing.

Control plan

Blue Cross and Blue Shield phrase that refers to a Blue plan that has sold a health insurance plan to a company with employees in other states and arranged for other Blue plans in the other locations to provide the same benefits. The control plan has the primary responsibility in administering the groups served by more than one Blue plan.

Conventions

1. Rules or principles for determining a diagnostic code when using diagnostic code books such as each space, typefaces, indentations, punctuation marks, instructional notes, abbreviations, cross-reference notes, and specific usage of the words and, with, and due to. These rules assist in the selection of correct codes for the diagnoses encountered. Also called coding conventions. 2. Space-saving rule used in the “Index,” which is the last section of the annually published Current Procedural Terminology code book. For example:KneeIncision (of)In this example, the word in parentheses (of) does not appear in the Index, but it is inferred. As another example:PancreasAnesthesia (for procedures on)In this example, because there is no such entity as pancreas anesthesia, the words in parentheses are inferred (i.e., anesthesia for procedures on the pancreas).