The New Obstetric Codes: Preparing Your Practice for the 2027 Maternity Care Transition-VIDEO: New OB Codes

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar introduced major changes to obstetrical coding, driven by ACOOG and Lisa Satterfield’s Coding and Health Economic Coding Committee. The goal was to replace outdated global obstetric codes with a new system that better reflects modern practice, where multiple clinicians may provide care across prenatal, labor, delivery, and postpartum phases.

Key points included:

- <strong>Prenatal and postpartum care now use standard E&M codes</strong> rather than bundled global maternity codes.
- <strong>Prenatal care is “tailored”</strong> to the individual patient, meaning the number of visits should match medical need rather than a fixed 13-visit model.
- <strong>Pregnancy for E&M coding purposes is generally treated as a moderate problem</strong> in the medical decision-making category, but overall visit level still depends on data, risk, and time.
- <strong>Labor management has new standalone codes</strong> for straightforward and complex care, with rules based on face-to-face hospital presence and documentation.
- <strong>Delivery coding has been simplified</strong>, focusing on whether birth was vaginal or cesarean.
- New separate codes were created for <strong>hysterectomy after cesarean</strong>, <strong>postpartum hemorrhage management</strong>, and <strong>third- or fourth-degree laceration repair</strong>.

The speakers emphasized that these changes aim to improve fairness in payment, allow better documentation, support telehealth and remote monitoring, and reduce problems caused by the old bundled model.

A major unresolved issue is that <strong>CMS has proposed keeping the old bundled G-codes alongside the new codes</strong>, and ACOOG urged attendees to submit comments before the deadline to support final adoption of the new system. The webinar also highlighted payer adoption, EMR updates, and the need for practices to prepare now for the transition.

Keywords

obstetrical coding

ACOOG

E&M codes

prenatal care

postpartum care

labor management

delivery coding

hysterectomy after cesarean

postpartum hemorrhage

CMS G-codes