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Ophthalmology and Optometry Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Say Hello and Goodbye to Indicator '9'

Published on Sat Mar 12, 2005

Question: What does the "9" in the modifier column of the NCCI edits mean? I thought it meant the second procedure was always allowed. Now I'm hearing that 9 means it's never allowed. If that's so, why is it not a "0"?


Idaho Subscriber
Answer: The official explanation from Medicare 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. 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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