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Reminder: Enhanced claim edits to align with industry standard billing rules for DME and P&O providers

September 17, 2020

AmeriHealth expanded the enhanced claim editing process to include additional rules specific to durable medical equipment (DME) and prosthetic and orthotic (P&O) billing providers effective for claims processed as of August 1, 2019. 

Claims received by AmeriHealth on or after June 10, 2018, are subject to an enhanced claim editing process during prepayment review. This process ensures compliance with current industry standards and supports the automated application of correct national and regional coding principles.* 

The industry standard sources specific to DME and P&O include the following:

  • National and Regional Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) policy
  • Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carries (DMERC) Manual
  • CMS HCPCS LEVEL II Manual coding guidelines
  • Medicare Claims Processing Manual

*Self-funded groups have the option to not participate in the enhanced claim edits; therefore, prepayment review may vary by health plan.

Modifier usage for DME and P&O billing providers

In addition to the above, AmeriHealth enforces CMS rules on modifier usage including the following modifiers:

  • A1 – A9, GY
  • AU, AV, AW, and AX
  • CG
  • FA – F9 and TA – T9
  • K0 – K4
  • KS, KX
  • KX, GA, or GZ
  • NU, UE, and RR
  • RT/LT

For detailed requirements related to these modifiers, please see this document.

With the implementation of these claim edits, claims submitted with inappropriate coding will be returned or denied. Providers will be notified via the Provider Explanation of Benefits (EOB) (professional) or Provider Remittance (facility), which will include a reason code for the claim return or denial. Any returned claims must be corrected prior to resubmission. These changes should have little or no impact to billing practices for submission of claims that are in accordance with the guidelines listed above and national industry-accepted coding standards.

Claim review requests

We recognize there may be times when you have questions regarding the outcome of a claim edit. As with all claim review requests, these questions should be submitted using the Claim Investigation transaction on the NaviNet® web portal (NaviNet Open).

Identifying claims that went through the claim editor process

Please be advised that if you have not been submitting claims in accordance with industry standards, the new claim edits may result in an increase in claim rejections and/or denials. If your claim is affected by one of the new claim edits, the edit explanation will be displayed on your electronic remittance report (835) and/or paper Provider EOB or Provider Remittance. Unique alpha-numeric codes and messages, beginning with “E8”, have been created. Should your claim line contain an E8XXX code/message, it means it was affected by the enhanced claim editor. You can also find the E8XXX codes/messages on the Claim Status Inquiry Detail screen in NaviNet Open. To view, hover your mouse over the service line and select View Additional Detail. If you see an E8XXX code/message, the line was subject an edit. Only E8XXX codes/messages are part of the enhanced claim editor. All other codes/messages are unrelated to the enhanced claim editor.

Learn more

Please review the Partners in Health Update article, Reminder: Enhanced claim edits to support correct coding principles, which was posted December 14, 2018.

For further questions about the enhanced claim editing process, review our Claim edit enhancements: Frequently asked questions (FAQ), which can also be found in the Frequently Asked Questions archive on AmeriHealth NaviNet Open Plan Central or in the Quick Links menu on the right-hand side of this page. The FAQ will be updated as more information becomes available. 

If you still have questions after reviewing these resources, please send an email to ahclaimeditquestions@amerihealth.com.

NaviNet® is a registered trademark of NantHealth.


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