Oncology & Hematology Coding Alert

Many payers want you to include the amount of drug used and the amount of drug wasted as a single line item. For these payers, therefore, you would not list waste separately but simply add the waste amount to the administered amount and report the total on one line.

If, for example, the provider uses 70 units from a 100-unit vial for a patient and discards the remainder, you would simply list "100" on line 24G, with no modifier. Some payers may instead prefer that you list 100 units with modifier JW to indicate that you discarded some portion of the total amount.

Best bet: Ask payers for their policies regarding payment for wasted drugs and how they want you to report them.