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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 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. Codes with an MAI of 2 have been rigorously reviewed and vetted within 
CMS and obtain this MAI designation because units of service on the same date of service (DOS) in excess of 
the MUE value would be considered impossible because it was contrary to statute, regulation, or subregulatory 
guidance. 
 
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). 
 
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 effective for claims with dates of service July 1, 2007, and after, the non-Outpatient 
Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Outpatient Code Editor (OCE) will be integrated into the OPPS OCE. 
This integration will result in the routing of all institutional outpatient claims, including non-OPPS hospital 
claims, through a single integrated OCE eliminating the need to update two separate OCE software packages 
on a quarterly basis. The integrated OCE does not change the current logic that is applied to outpatient bill 
types that already pass through the OPPS OCE software. It merely expands the software usage to include non- 
OPPS hospitals. This new software product will be referred to as the Integrated OCE (I/OCE). The I/OCE 
instructions and specifications are provided via Recurring Update Notifications. They are also posted on the 
Web at the following address: 
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/OutpatientCodeEdit/OCEQtrReleaseSpecs 
 
You can find this information in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Internet-Only Manual, 
Publication 100-04, Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 4, Section 40.1. 
 
Medicare rules state that the I/OCE establishes code edit 17, meaning the same inherent bilateral procedure 
code occurs two or more times on the same service date. This edit is applied to all relevant bilateral procedure 
lines, except when modifier 76 or 77 is submitted on the second or subsequent line or units of an inherently 
bilateral code. This edit is also bypassed when codes with an SI of V that are also on the Inherent Bilateral list, 
condition code G0 will take precedence over the bilateral edit; these claims will not receive edit 17. It is also 
bypassed if the bill type is 085x. The disposition of this code edit is RTP: Return To Provider. A claim returned 
to the provider means that the provider can resubmit the claim once the problems are corrected. You can find 
this rule in the Integrated Outpatient Code Editor (I/OCE) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 
Specifications File, Tables 6.1.1 and 6.2. 
 
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.