Internal Medicine Coding Alert
Reader Questions:
End Your Indicator '9' Confusion
Published on Wed Apr 27, 2005 
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Question: What does the "9" in the modifier column of the National Correct Coding Initiative edits mean? Answer: Medicare's official explanation is that "a 9 means that the use of modifiers is not specified." This indicator also marks all of the bundled pairs for which the deletion date is the same as the effective date - bundles that were, essentially, never effective.
Idaho Subscriber
NCCI created this indicator so there would be no blank spaces in the indicator field. Generally, bundles marked with "9" are bundles you don't have to worry about, since they were never effective NCCI bundles.
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