The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has scheduled its next public meeting on Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Level II code revisions for November 2–3, 2026, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on September 16, 2026. For coders and RCM teams who mostly think of HCPCS Level II as “the DME and supply codes,” the notice is a reminder that this code set is still actively built, debated, and revised twice a year — and that the process behind it has direct downstream effects on claims.
It’s easy for this kind of procedural notice to get filed away as background noise, especially next to higher-profile ICD-10-CM and CPT updates. But HCPCS Level II covers a wide swath of what actually gets billed outside a physician’s evaluation and management note — durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, supplies, and a growing number of drugs and services that don’t fit neatly into CPT. When that code set shifts, claims edits, medical necessity policies, and prior authorization rules tend to shift with it.
What CMS actually announced
The notice sets up a hybrid meeting at CMS headquarters in Baltimore, live-streamed via Microsoft Teams, where the agency will walk through its preliminary coding, Medicare benefit category, and payment determinations for non-drug and non-biological items and services. A virtual overflow session is scheduled for November 3. Registration to speak in person or virtually closes October 19, 2026, and written comments on the discussed applications are due by November 4, 2026.
CMS hasn’t yet published which specific code applications are on the agenda — that list is expected on the agency’s website closer to the meeting date — but the mechanics matter as much as the specifics. Primary speakers get 15-minute slots, other commenters get five minutes, and anyone presenting has to disclose financial conflicts of interest before speaking. Applications typically come from manufacturers, specialty societies, and other stakeholders seeking a distinct code for an item or service currently billed under a miscellaneous or “not otherwise classified” code — which is precisely the category most likely to trigger payer scrutiny or denials in the meantime.
Why the HCPCS Level II cycle matters beyond DME billing
A code doesn’t exist until it clears benefit category and payment review
New HCPCS Level II codes aren’t just typed into a spreadsheet. Each application moves through CMS’s preliminary coding decision, a benefit category determination (is this item or service even covered under Medicare?), and a payment determination, before it’s finalized. That sequence is exactly what this November meeting exists to work through in public, with industry, provider groups, and manufacturers able to weigh in before anything is locked in.
For a coding or compliance team, that means the codes that show up in next year’s update files didn’t appear from nowhere — they were shaped by comments submitted months earlier, in cycles like this one.
A parallel coding cycle is already moving: CPT 2027
The HCPCS Level II process doesn’t run in isolation. The American Medical Association released its CPT 2027 code set on September 9, 2026, adding 299 new codes, 74 revisions, and 80 deletions — 453 editorial changes in total. Ten of those new codes are AI-specific, bringing the running total of AI-related CPT codes to 43, alongside an updated AMA taxonomy meant to help applicants pick consistent terminology as more AI-enabled services come up for coding.
Put the two processes side by side and the pattern is clear: both the AMA’s CPT cycle and CMS’s HCPCS Level II cycle are actively expanding to keep pace with new devices, services, and AI-enabled tools. Neither is a once-a-year, set-it-and-forget-it update anymore.
What this means for coding and compliance teams
None of this requires action today, but it does argue for a few concrete habits heading into Q4:
- Flag November 2–3, 2026 on compliance calendars and check CMS’s site for the published agenda once it’s posted, especially for any supply, DME, or device categories relevant to your organization.
- Track whether any pending applications overlap with services your organization already bills under a miscellaneous or “not otherwise classified” code — a new specific code can change reimbursement overnight once finalized.
- Review how your coding workflow, whether manual or AI-assisted, ingests quarterly and biannual code set updates, so new CPT and HCPCS codes reach claims teams before they’re needed rather than after a denial.
- Keep documentation templates current with the AMA’s AI taxonomy language, since payer edits increasingly key off precise descriptor terminology for AI-enabled services.
The takeaway
Coding updates used to feel like a once-a-year event tied to October 1 ICD-10-CM changes. Between CMS’s biannual HCPCS Level II meetings and the AMA’s expanding CPT release cycle, that’s no longer an accurate picture. Coding and compliance teams that treat these as ongoing regulatory processes — not annual checklist items — are better positioned to catch a benefit-category change or a new AI-service code before it shows up as a denial, a recoupment request, or an audit finding months later.
Staying current across two active code sets is exactly the kind of ongoing tracking work that’s hard to do manually at scale. Medikode’s automated medical coding platform is built to keep coding logic aligned with the latest CPT and HCPCS updates as they’re finalized, so compliance teams aren’t left reconciling code sets after the fact.