No More 90 Day Grace Period!

"CMS is instructing carriers, DMERCs, and fiscal intermediaries to eliminate the 90-day grace period for billing discontinued HCPCS (CPT® and HCPCS Level II) codes."

CMS has done away with the 90 day grace period. You will no longer have 90 days to adopt the new code sets but must begin using them on the day when they go into effect.

This means that you need to have your 2005 ICD-9-CM code books before October 1, 2004. And you will need to have your 2005 CPT-4 books before December 31, 2004. Reserve your copies now to ensure that you get them as soon as possible and avoid having your claims returned as unprocessable.

Here is the CMS MedLearn article regarding the CPT and HCPCS code sets.

CPT Code Set

And here is the CMS MedLearn article regarding the ICD-9-CM codes and the elimination of the 90 day grace period.

ICD-9-CM Code Set


Outdated codes will not be accepted. Be sure to have the new code books BEFORE the deadline.