Re: ... the proposed rule sets forth a number of proposed vocabulary standards (e.g., LOINC, SNOMED-CT, ICD-9 and ICD-10, RxNorm and HCPCs).... Vocabulary standards are nomenclatures used to ensure that ....

Most healthcare professionals do not understand the important differences between clinical classifications and clinical terminologies (a.k.a. nomenclatures or vocabularies). Both have coexisted for decades. Both use clinical language, but they come from different domains and they are designed for distinctly different purposes.

Clinical classifications include ICD-9-CM, ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, HCPCs, CPT. They derive from epidemiology and health information management and they group similar diseases and procedures based on predetermined categories for body systems, etiology or life phases. Clinical terminologies (or nomenclatures or vocabularies) include SNOMED-CT, LOINC, RxNorm. They derive from health informatics and they codify the clinical information captured in an EHR.

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