Medical Coding Books



As a medical biller, your medical coding books are the most important tools you possess. When we refer to medical coding books, we are mainly referring to CPT® and ICD.


CPT® and ICD-10_CM provide a standardized language to describe medical, surgical and diagnostic services and a means of tracking disease. The code sets are updated at least annually.


There are many coding books to choose from  as well as online coding tools available with a subscription. You can buy the standard CPT® and ICD-10-CM medical coding books but there are also many books available for specialties for professional and facility billing.


Here's some minimal criteria for a good medical coding book:

  • Easy To Use - If I'm going to be using this book every day, I want to be able to navigate around easily. It should have a good index and be simple to use.


  • Common terminology cross references to medical diagnosis - I need to look up the common diagnosis the doctor has written on the superbill in order to find the medical diagnosis that I need to bill.


  • Summary of changes - What has changed from last year to this year? What CPT and diagnosis codes have been added, modified, redefined, or dropped.


ICD-10-CM replaced ICD-9 effective October 1, 2013, with a new and larger code set. ICD-9 had approximately 4000 codes. ICD-10 has almost 72,000! This is all the more reason to maintain up to date medical coding books as part of your toolkit for successful medical billing.