New Coding Changes as of January 1, 2021

The American Dental Association (ADA) has released its Code on Dental Procedures and Nomenclature for 2021 (CDT 2021) 

Please use CDT 2021 codes when submitting claims to any dental/medical insurance for services you perform on or after January 1, 2021.

If you are resubmitting claims where your services were performed in 2020, do not update these codes to the 2021 codes. 

There are some critical new changes and revisions in the codes for 2021.  As dentistry moves more towards medical billing considerations, it will be essential to pay close attention to codes’ choice. 

The ADA has compiled a detailed report on the development of this new coding application regarding capture of images in patient treatment diagnosis.

Take note that payment of new codes will vary from plan to plan.  Code what you do, whether it is a covered benefit or not.

Two of the new codes are as follows (there are seven more in this series):

  D0701 panoramic radiographic image – image capture only (not diagnosis)

Standard consideration for payment is comparable to the guidelines for D0330

  D0709 intraoral – complete series of radiographic images – image capture only (not diagnosis)

 Standard consideration for payment is comparable to the guidelines for D0210.

For the nine new codes D0701-D0709: Report these codes when a patient is referred to a separate imaging facility or practitioner to capture an image only. The codes are for radiographic and photographic image capture. The dentist continues to report the interpretation of imaging separately with existing codes.