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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 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 National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) was developed to prevent inappropriate 
payment of services that should not be reported together. NCCI edits are organized in a Column I/Column 2 
table. Each edit is a pair of codes that should not be reported together. If a provider reports two codes of an edit 
pair, only the Column 1 code is payable. For edits with a modifier indicator of 0, the Column 2 code cannot be 
paid regardless of whether a modifier is used. You can find this in the NCCI Manual, Chapter I. 
 
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). 
 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). 
 
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.