difference between hcpcs and cpt
â¢ Categorized under Health | Difference Between HCPCS and CPT. HCPCS vs. CPT. Current Procedural Terminology (or CPT) is a code set maintained by the American Medical Association (AMA) through the CPT Editorial Panel. It was designed to describe medical, surgical, and diagnostic services accurately.
HCPCS are codes generated by the federal government to describe procedures that have special significance to either the Medicaid or Medicare programs. There is some overlap between CPT codes and HCPCS. This is because level 1 HCPCS codes are, in fact, CPT codes. Level 2 HCPCS codes are unique codes that, for us, begin with a 'V' or a 'W'. There also exists a level 3 series of codes that I will address below.