CMS Pub. 100-04, ch. 4, § 200.8

Beginning January 1, 2008, the I/OCE began editing for the presence of a radiolabeled

product when a separately payable nuclear medicine procedure is present on a claim.

Hospitals should include radiolabeled product HCPCS codes on the same claim as a

nuclear medicine procedure beginning on January 1, 2008.

Hospitals are required to submit the HCPCS code for the radiolabeled product on the

same claim as the HCPCS code for the nuclear medicine procedure. Hospitals are also

instructed to submit the claim so that the services on the claim each reflect the date the

particular service was provided. Therefore, if the nuclear medicine procedure is provided

on a different date of service from the radiolabeled product, the claim will contain more

than one date of service. More information regarding these edits is available on the

OPPS Web site at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HospitalOutpatientPPS/.

Hospitals are instructed to use HCPCS code C9898 (Radiolabeled product provided

during a hospital inpatient stay) on outpatient claims for nuclear medicine procedures to

indicate that a radiolabeled product that provides the radioactivity necessary for the

reported diagnostic nuclear medicine procedure was provided during a hospital inpatient

stay. This HCPCS code is assigned status indicator “N” because no separate payment is

made for the code under the OPPS. The effective date of the code is January 1, 2008, the

date the nuclear medicine procedure-to-radiolabeled product edits were initially

implemented. Because the Medicare claims processing system requires that there be a

charge for each HCPCS code reported on the claim, hospitals should always report a

token charge of less than $1.01 for HCPCS code C9898. The date of service reported on

the claim for HCPCS code C9898 should be the same as the date of service for the

nuclear medicine procedure HCPCS code, which should always accompany the reporting

of HCPCS code C9898. HCPCS code C9898 should never be reported on a claim

without a diagnostic nuclear medicine procedure that is subject to the nuclear medicine

procedure-to-radiolabeled product edits.

More information regarding these edits is available on the OPPS Web site at

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HospitalOutpatientPPS

Future updates to this section will be communicated in a Recurring Update Notification.