Appeal type: unknown
Decision: unknown

 
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 Medicare has determined for which surgical services an assistant surgeon is medically 
necessary. This information can be found in the Medicare Fee Schedule Database. If the database contains an 
assistant at surgery indicator of 1 for the surgical procedure in question, Medicare has determined that an 
assistant is not medically necessary. Assistant surgeons will not be paid for these procedures. You can find this 
rule in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Internet Only Manual, Medicare Claims Processing 
Manual, Chapter 12, Section 40.8. 
 
The rules say that the Correct Coding Initiative was developed to promote correct coding and to control 
improper coding leading to inappropriate payment in Part B claims. The Coding Policy Manual also explains 
what is referred to as Column One/Column Two Correct Coding and Mutually Exclusive Edits. These are code 
pairs that should not be reported together. Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) subject all line items 
for the same beneficiary, same National Provider Identifier (NPI), and same date of service to National Correct 
Coding Initiative (NCCI) edits. The National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) File Formats continue to 
include a Correct Coding Modifier Indicator (CCMI) for the Column One / Column Two Correct Coding edit 
file. This indicator determines whether an NCCI Procedure to Procedure (PTP)-associated modifier causes the 
code pair to bypass the edit. You can find this rule in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Internet 
Only Manual, Publication 100-04, Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 23, Section 20.9. 
 
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 rules say that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) has established units of service edits 
referred to as Medically Unlikely Edits (MUEs). An MUE for a Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System 
(HCPCS)/Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code is the maximum number of units of service under most 
circumstances allowable by the same provider for the same enrollee on the same date of service. Claims 
submitted where the unit of service exceeds the MUE value for that HCPCS/CPT code will be denied. 
 
Beginning on April 1, 2013, CMS introduced the MUE Adjudication Indicator (MAI) to differentiate between 
types of MUEs. If a code has an MAI of 1, appropriate use of a modifier may be used to report the same code 
on separate lines of the claim. MUEs for codes with an MAI of 2 are absolute date of service edits. These are 
"per day edits based on policy." MUEs for codes with an MAI of 3 are "per day edits based on clinical 
benchmarks." Codes with an MAI of "3" are based on criteria combined with data such that it would be 
possible, but medically unlikely, that higher values would represent correctly reported medically necessary 
services. To be paid, there must be evidence (e.g., medical review) that the excess units were actually provided, 
were correctly coded, and were medically necessary. 
 
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(V). 
 
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.