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LICENSES AND NOTICES

License for Use of "Physicians' Current Procedural Terminology", (CPT) Fourth Edition

End User/Point and Click Agreement: CPT codes, descriptions and other data only are copyright 2009 American Medical Association (AMA). All Rights Reserved (or such other date of publication of CPT). CPT is a trademark of the AMA.

You, your employees and agents are authorized to use CPT only as contained in the following authorized materials including but not limited to CGS fee schedules, general communications, Medicare Bulletin, and related materials internally within your organization within the United States for the sole use by yourself, employees, and agents. Use is limited to use in Medicare, Medicaid, or other programs administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). You agree to take all necessary steps to insure that your employees and agents abide by the terms of this agreement.

Any use not authorized herein is prohibited, including by way of illustration and not by way of limitation, making copies of CPT for resale and/or license, transferring copies of CPT to any party not bound by this agreement, creating any modified or derivative work of CPT, or making any commercial use of CPT. License to use CPT for any use not authorized here in must be obtained through the AMA, CPT Intellectual Property Services, 515 N. State Street, Chicago, IL 60610. Applications are available at the AMA websiteExternal Website.

This product includes CPT which is commercial technical data and/or computer data bases and/or commercial computer software and/or commercial computer software documentation, as applicable which were developed exclusively at private expense by the American Medical Association, 515 North State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60610. U.S. Government rights to use, modify, reproduce, release, perform, display, or disclose these technical data and/or computer data bases and/or computer software and/or computer software documentation are subject to the limited rights restrictions of DFARS 252.227-7015(b)(2)(June 1995) and/or subject to the restrictions of DFARS 227.7202-1(a)(June 1995) and DFARS 227.7202-3(a)June 1995), as applicable for U.S. Department of Defense procurements and the limited rights restrictions of FAR 52.227-14 (June 1987) and/or subject to the restricted rights provisions of FAR 52.227-14 (June 1987) and FAR 52.227-19 (June 1987), as applicable, and any applicable agency FAR Supplements, for non-Department Federal procurements.

AMA Disclaimer of Warranties and Liabilities.

CPT is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. AMA warrants that due to the nature of CPT, it does not manipulate or process dates, therefore there is no Year 2000 issue with CPT. AMA disclaims responsibility for any errors in CPT that may arise as a result of CPT being used in conjunction with any software and/or hardware system that is not Year 2000 compliant. No fee schedules, basic unit, relative values or related listings are included in CPT. The AMA does not directly or indirectly practice medicine or dispense medical services. The responsibility for the content of this file/product is with CGS or the CMS and no endorsement by the AMA is intended or implied. The AMA disclaims responsibility for any consequences or liability attributable to or related to any use, non-use, or interpretation of information contained or not contained in this file/product. This Agreement will terminate upon notice if you violate its terms. The AMA is a third party beneficiary to this Agreement.

CMS Disclaimer

The scope of this license is determined by the AMA, the copyright holder. Any questions pertaining to the license or use of the CPT must be addressed to the AMA. End Users do not act for or on behalf of the CMS. CMS DISCLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LIABILITY ATTRIBUTABLE TO END USER USE OF THE CPT. CMS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIMS ATTRIBUTABLE TO ANY ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR OTHER INACCURACIES IN THE INFORMATION OR MATERIAL CONTAINED ON THIS PAGE. In no event shall CMS be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of the use of such information or material.

This license will terminate upon notice to you if you violate the terms of this license. The AMA is a third party beneficiary to this license.

POINT AND CLICK LICENSE FOR USE OF "CURRENT DENTAL TERMINOLOGY", ("CDT")

End User License Agreement

These materials contain Current Dental Terminology, Fourth Edition (CDT), copyright © 2002, 2004 American Dental Association (ADA). All rights reserved. CDT is a trademark of the ADA.

THE LICENSE GRANTED HEREIN IS EXPRESSLY CONDITIONED UPON YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT. BY CLICKING BELOW ON THE BUTTON LABELED "I ACCEPT", YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD AND AGREED TO ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH HEREIN, CLICK BELOW ON THE BUTTON LABELED "I DO NOT ACCEPT" AND EXIT FROM THIS COMPUTER SCREEN.

IF YOU ARE ACTING ON BEHALF OF AN ORGANIZATION, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO ACT ON BEHALF OF SUCH ORGANIZATION AND THAT YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT CREATES A LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE OBLIGATION OF THE ORGANIZATION. AS USED HEREIN, "YOU" AND "YOUR" REFER TO YOU AND ANY ORGANIZATION ON BEHALF OF WHICH YOU ARE ACTING.

  1. Subject to the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement, you, your employees, and agents are authorized to use CDT-4 only as contained in the following authorized materials and solely for internal use by yourself, employees and agents within your organization within the United States and its territories. Use of CDT-4 is limited to use in programs administered by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). You agree to take all necessary steps to ensure that your employees and agents abide by the terms of this agreement. You acknowledge that the ADA holds all copyright, trademark and other rights in CDT-4. You shall not remove, alter, or obscure any ADA copyright notices or other proprietary rights notices included in the materials.
  2. Any use not authorized herein is prohibited, including by way of illustration and not by way of limitation, making copies of CDT-4 for resale and/or license, transferring copies of CDT-4 to any party not bound by this agreement, creating any modified or derivative work of CDT-4, or making any commercial use of CDT-4. License to use CDT-4 for any use not authorized herein must be obtained through the American Dental Association, 211 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611. Applications are available at the American Dental Association websiteExternal Website.
  3. Applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation Clauses (FARS)\Department of Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) Restrictions Apply to Government use. Please click here to see all U.S. Government Rights Provisions.
  4. ADA DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITIES. CDT-4 is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. No fee schedules, basic unit, relative values or related listings are included in CDT-4. The ADA does not directly or indirectly practice medicine or dispense dental services. The sole responsibility for the software, including any CDT-4 and other content contained therein, is with (insert name of applicable entity) or the CMS; and no endorsement by the ADA is intended or implied. The ADA expressly disclaims responsibility for any consequences or liability attributable to or related to any use, non-use, or interpretation of information contained or not contained in this file/product. This Agreement will terminate upon notice to you if you violate the terms of this Agreement. The ADA is a third-party beneficiary to this Agreement.
  5. CMS DISCLAIMER. The scope of this license is determined by the ADA, the copyright holder. Any questions pertaining to the license or use of the CDT-4 should be addressed to the ADA. End users do not act for or on behalf of the CMS. CMS DISCLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LIABILITY ATTRIBUTABLE TO END USER USE OF THE CDT-4. CMS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIMS ATTRIBUTABLE TO ANY ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR OTHER INACCURACIES IN THE INFORMATION OR MATERIAL COVERED BY THIS LICENSE. In no event shall CMS be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of the use of such information or material.

The license granted herein is expressly conditioned upon your acceptance of all terms and conditions contained in this agreement. If the foregoing terms and conditions are acceptable to you, please indicate your agreement by clicking below on the button labeled "I ACCEPT". If you do not agree to the terms and conditions, you may not access or use the software. Instead, you must click below on the button labeled "I DO NOT ACCEPT" and exit from this computer screen.


Impact

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Submitting Paper Claims

The Administrative Simplification Compliance Act (ASCA) requires that as of October 16, 2003, all initial Medicare claims be submitted electronically, except in limited situations. Medicare is prohibited from payment of claims submitted on a paper claim form that do not meet the limited exception criteria.

CMS has provided a listing of exceptions to electronic claim submission on its Administrative Simplification Compliance Act Self-AssessmentExternal Website Web page. Some of these include:

  • Small provider claims
  • Claims from providers that submit fewer than 10 claims per month on average during a calendar year
  • Claims for payment under a Medicare demonstration project that specifies paper submission

Prior to submitting any paper claims to CGS, providers should conduct a self-assessment to determine if they meet one of the exceptions for electronic claim submission by accessing the CMS Administrative Simplification Compliance Act Self-AssessmentExternal Website Web page.

When appropriate, paper claims should be mailed to:

J15 — Part B Claims
CGS Administrators, LLC
PO Box 20019
Nashville, TN 37202

NOTE: Part B claims, including Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) claims, are accepted and processed as electronic claims through myCGS, our secure web portal. Electronic claims can be paid in as few as 14 days, compared to 29 days for paper claims. Submitting claims through myCGS is FREE! Check here to register.

Preparing the CMS-1500 Claim Form
CGS uses an optical character recognition (OCR) system to enter claim information from the CMS-1500 claim form into our processing system. Doing this automates the process and reduces the chance of human keying errors.  To ensure the OCR is able to capture all claims data correctly, it is important that the following be considered:

  • Follow the CMS-1500 claim form instructionsExternal PDF
  • An original CMS-1500 claim form is required
    • Version 02/12, OMB control number 0938-1197
  • Computerized or typed claims are preferred over handwritten claims
    • Laser printers are recommended
    • Remove the pin-feed perforated edges before mailing claims
  • Print claims using BLACK ink
    • Ink should be dark and legible
  • Courier or Arial in 10, 11 or 12 point font is preferred
  • Use capital letters when possible
  • Data should be inside the boxes of the claim form
  • Only one service may be entered per line
    • If additional line items are needed, please add them to a separate claim form
    • Complete the “Total” field (Item 28) on each page of the CMS-1500 claim form when multiple claim forms are submitted for the same patient
  • Avoid using liquid correction fluid or tape on claims
  • Do not use highlighter pens
  • Do not include stickers and/or notations in the margin of the claim form
  • Do not attach mailing labels to the claim
  • Narrative descriptions with procedure and/or diagnosis codes may cause scanning errors
  • Claims for multiple beneficiaries should not be folded separately
    • Multiple claims can be submitted in one envelope

When including documentation with the CMS-1500 claim form:

  • Additional documentation (i.e., operative reports, medical records, radiology/lab reports) are to be submitted only when the policy notes this information is needed to correctly adjudicate the claim
  • Do not staple or tape attachments to the claim
    • Attachments may be placed directly behind the CMS-1500 claim form
    • Paper clips are acceptable
  • Verify that all attachments include information pertinent to the patient
    • o The patient’s name, Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) and the date of service should be identified on all pages of attachments
  • Attachments should be 8 ½ x 11 in size
    • When Medicare is the secondary payer (MSP), include a copy of the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from the primary payer specific to the date of service.  NOTE:  MSP claims and EOB information may be submitted electronically for FREE using myCGS
    • Primary EOBs must include the name of the insurer, an explanation of how the claim was processed, and identifying information specific to the patient and date of service
  • Up to five attachments may be sent electronically through myCGS

Please see the following resources that are available on this topic:

Updated: 12.07.22

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