Tuesday, October 5, 2021

BETOS - Medicare's Data Categories for Clinical Services - Upgraded as BETOS 2.0

How do you categorize HCPCS and CPT codes?   CPT codes in the 80,000's are lab codes; HCPCS codes starting with E are durable medical equipment....   CMS uses a system called Berenson-Eggers Type of Service codes, BETOS.    Dr Berenson is an active policy expert at the Urban Institute (his home page here, Wiki here.)  The original BETOS system was designed in 1998-2000 (here).  

See BETOS at Wikipedia here.  BETOS has seven highest-level categories:  E&M, Procedures, Imaging, Tests, DME, Other, and Exceptions.

BETOS 2.0 IS HERE

CMS has a new home page for the BETOS 2.0 system - here.

The page above includes a link to a 56 page white paper on the new BETOS 2.0 system - here.

There's a separate, 2020, 51-page report on the design of the BETOS 2.0 system online at Urban Institute, here.  

For an example of a recent paper using BETOS codes to track radiology for ten years, here.


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The legacy BETOS page was here.

Berenson and Walter Zelman wrote a 1998 book, "The Managed Care Blues and How to Cure Them," still available via a Kindle edition.  Here.