Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Published on Sat Sep 05, 2009 PDF

Plus: One carrier suffers claims glitch regarding Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) claims.

When Part B MACs publish the top errors that they see in claims submitted by physicians, incorrectlybilled drugs are always near the top of the list. If you're one of the coders that has trouble assigning units to drug claims, one MAC has a solution for you.

Palmetto GBA, a Part B payer, now offers a "Drug Lookup and Calculator Tool," which was created "to help providers submit the correct number of units on their claims by calculating and converting the dosage administered to the patient."

Plus: The calculator displays the current maximum allowable units assigned to the drug.

For instance, if you enter J2920 (Injection methylprednisolone sodium succinate) into the system, it will ask you how many milligrams you administered. The system will then tell you how many units to report, with a notation that 83 units are the maximum allowed for this drug.