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The rules say that plans must pay for a medical service or item if regular Medicare would pay for it in this case. You can find this rule at 42 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section 422.101.
The rules say that for Somatic (Acquired) Cancer, effective for services performed on or after March 16, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has determined that Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) as a diagnostic laboratory test is reasonable and necessary and covered nationally, when performed in a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-certified laboratory, when ordered by a treating physician, and when all of the following requirements are met: Patient has either recurrent, relapsed, refractory, metastatic, or advanced stage III or IV cancer; and has not been previously tested with the same test using NGS for the same cancer genetic content, and has decided to seek further cancer treatment (e.g., therapeutic chemotherapy). You can find this in the Medicare National Coverage Determination (NCD) Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) 90.2.
The rules say that providers/suppliers must report services correctly. Procedures should be reported with the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code that describes the services performed. You can find this rule in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicare National Correct Coding Initiative Policy Manual for Medicare Services, Chapter I(A). The date of service (DOS) policy for either a clinical laboratory test or the technical component of physician pathology service is as follows: General Rule: The DOS of the test/service must be the date the specimen was collected. Variation: If a specimen is collected over a period that spans two calendar days, then the DOS must be the date the collection ended. Exceptions: The following three exceptions apply to the DOS policy for either a clinical laboratory test or the technical component of physician pathology service: A. DOS for Tests/Services Performed on Stored Specimens: In the case of a test/service performed on a stored specimen, if a specimen was stored for less than or equal to 30 calendar days from the date it was collected, the DOS of the test/service must be the date the test/service was performed only if: - The test/service is ordered by the patient's physician at least 14 days following the date of the patient's discharge from the hospital; - The specimen was collected while the patient was undergoing a hospital surgical procedure; - It would be medically inappropriate to have collected the sample other than during the hospital procedure for which the patient was admitted; - The results of the test/service do not guide treatment provided during the hospital stay; and - The test/service was reasonable and medically necessary for treatment of an illness. If the specimen was stored for more than 30 calendar days before testing, the specimen is considered to have been archived and the DOS of the test/service must be the date the specimen was obtained from storage. You can find this in the Medicare Claims Processing Manual Chapter 16 under Laboratory Services, section 40.8, Date of Service (DOS) for Clinical Laboratory and Pathology Specimens.
The rules also say that certain data elements are required. Any claim with incomplete, missing, or invalid information for all these elements may be returned as un-processable. You can find this rule in the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 1, Section 80.3.1. The rules state that when completing the 1500 claim form, providers must enter the correct Place of Service (POS) code in section 24B. Invalid or incorrect POS codes will be denied and returned to the provider. You can find this rule at Medicare Claims Processing Manual Ch. 26 Section 10.6.
If you want to read these Medicare rules, you can go to this website www.medicareappeal.com.
The Plan contract says that the Plan covers items and services in accordance with Medicare rules.