Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Plus: CMS accepting comments on ICD-10 delay through May 17.

When a patient passes away while in your physician's care, you may be familiar with adding the death-related discharge codes to his claims--but now you have another code to tack on to those.

CMS introduced occurrence code 55 last week, which you must report along with a patient's date of death when the patient's discharge status is 20 (Expired), 40 (Expired at home), 41 (Expired in a medical facility), or 42 (Expired--place unknown), according to MLN Matters article MM7792.

Effective Oct. 1, you must include code 55 with these discharge indicators, or you may face denials.

To read more about this new date of death code, visit www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNMattersArticles/Downloads/MM7792.pdf.