How to decide whether to trust us

1. The codes themselves are not our opinion

Every code, descriptor, coding note, exclusion, and seventh-character rule on this site is loaded directly from the official government release — currently ICD-10-CM FY2026-Apr, published by CMS and the National Center for Health Statistics. We do not paraphrase it, re-key it, or “improve” it. If our page disagrees with the CMS tabular list, our page is wrong, and we want to hear about it.

Which file, and when it took effect, is stated on our data sources page and in the footer of every page that shows you data.

2. What we do add, and how to treat it

Two things on a code page are ours rather than the government’s, and they are worth treating differently:

• The plain-language line that says whether a code is billable and what it is for. This is derived mechanically from the official data (the billable flag comes from the CMS order file, not from our judgment), and it is meant to save you a moment, not to replace the tabular list.
• Explanations of what a note type means — for instance, that Excludes1 means two conditions can never be coded together while Excludes2 means they can. These are restatements of the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines, written for coders who are new enough not to have them memorised.

Neither is clinical advice, and neither overrides the Official Guidelines or your payer’s policy. Where we have written something and a credentialed coder has reviewed it, we say so on the page, by name. Where nobody has reviewed it, we say nothing rather than implying otherwise.

3. Review

Our guidance content is reviewed by the credentialed coders on our review panel. A reviewer is named on a page, with their certification and the date, only after they have actually gone through that page — a page without a byline has not been reviewed yet, and we would rather show you that gap than a reassuring byline that means nothing.

• Deborah “Deb” Franklin, CPC — Certified Professional Coder with 22 years across inpatient, outpatient, and specialty clinics. Former coding supervisor at a Level 1 trauma center, with deep knowledge of specialty-specific ICD-10-CM, CPT, and HCPCS Level II coding.
• Michael Torres, CPC, CCS, CRC — Director of Coding Operations for a large physician management group, managing a team of 45 coders across 30 specialties. Focused on coding accuracy, automation, and denial reduction through precise code assignment.
• Dr. Emily Nakamura, MD — Family medicine physician and certified coding educator with 16 years of clinical practice. Teaches E/M coding and documentation best practices to residents and attending physicians.
• Rachel Simmons, CIC — Certified Inpatient Coder with 11 years of hospital-based coding experience. Specializes in complex surgical coding, DRG validation, and query management.
• Kevin O’Donnell, CCS — Revenue Integrity Analyst and Certified Coding Specialist with 14 years of experience in charge capture, coding reconciliation, and denial prevention.
• Cynthia Harper, CPMA — Medical Coding Compliance Officer with 20 years of regulatory and auditing experience. Leads internal and external coding audits and develops compliance training aligned with OIG guidelines.
• Thomas Bennett, AHIMA-approved ICD-10 trainer — Senior Medical Coder and Coding Workflow Specialist with 13 years in outpatient and telemedicine coding. Expert in coding software implementation and workflow optimization.

4. Errors, and what we do about them

Every code page has a report button. It takes ten seconds and does not ask you to make an account. Every correction we ship is published in our public corrections log, with the date and what changed, including the embarrassing ones. We do not delete from that log.

5. What we will not publish

• CPT content, until a signed licence from the American Medical Association is actually in our hands. Not when we have applied for one — when we hold one. CPT is copyrighted, every tool that shows you CPT descriptors pays the AMA for that right, and we will too — rather than shipping it now and hoping.
• Advertising. Not now, not later. The free lookup is funded by coders who pay for the paid tool. The moment a code page is also an ad slot, its layout starts serving the advertiser.
• AI-generated coding advice we cannot source. Any assistant we ship cites the guideline paragraph it is relying on, or it declines to answer. A confident, unsourced coding suggestion is worse than no suggestion, because you might act on it.

6. This is not advice

Medical Coding & Billing Pro is a reference and verification tool for professional coders. It is not medical advice, legal advice, or billing advice, and it does not replace the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines, your payer’s policy, or your own professional judgment. The code you submit is your call, and your responsibility.