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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 Medicare plans must make reasonable and diligent efforts to gather and forward information 
to the Independent Review Entity (IRE). You can find this information in the Centers for Medicare and 
Medicaid Services, Internet Only Manual, Parts C & D Enrollee Grievances, Organization/Coverage 
Determinations, and Appeals Guidance Manual, Section 50.12.1.  
 
 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 codes paid via the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) have an assigned Professional Component 
(PC)/Technical Component (TC) Indicator. A PC/TC indicator of 3 means that the code is a stand-alone code 
that describes the technical component (i.e., staff and equipment costs) of selected diagnostic tests for which 
there is an associated code that describes the professional component of the diagnostic tests only. You can find 
this information in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Internet-Only Manual, Publication 100-04, 
Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 23, Section 50.6. 
 
The rules also say that the outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) recognizes that Current Procedural 
Terminology (CPT) code 99153 is a practice expense (PE) only code and are finalizing the proposed PE inputs 
for CPT code 99153. You can find this information in the Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule. 
 
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. 
 
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.