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For the last several quarters, I've been tracking a Correct Coding Edit on the CMS website that appears to date back several years and would normally operate to block use of the BRCA sequencing and BRCA duplication-deletion codes together (codes 81211-81213).
Updated through the current October 2017 instructions, note that there is a block against using 81211 and 81213 together:
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I went back to the transcript of the August 26, 2015, meeting, where these codes were discussed by Dr. Phurrough of CMS (see archive here, here). Dr. Phurrough stated:
"If they [a lab] were to do one of the individual tests, 81211 or 81213, not on the same day, then they would be paid separately.
If they were to do both of these codes, then correct coding, non-fraudulent coding would be the new code 81162. And to code both 81211 and 81213, when you did both of them, on the same patient, the same sample, would be incorrect coding."It looks like Dr. Phurrough and the CCI edit author were on the same page. Both are public record and easily found online at the links above.
Based on PAMA rates 2018-2020, converting the existing above CCI edit to a non-overridable edit would save CMS $54 million.
For data on use of codes 81211 and 81213 by various labs in CY2015, see an earlier analysis, here.
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[*] The 20130401 number indicates the edit dates from April 2013, and the * indicates it has no termination date. The next column "1" means that a Mod 59 will flag for payment of both codes due to a special circumstance. A "0" in that column means that payment for both codes is never allowed.
CMS's 2017 report to Congress report that edits save CMS about $700M per year, and about $400M of the "P2P" type of edits shown above; here.
