CMS Postpones K0009 Policy Change Implementation

• By Laurie Watanabe
• Sep 17, 2012

Medicare's Pricing, Data Analysis & Coding contractor (PDAC) has announced that the implementation date for a new K0009 coding policy for manual wheelchairs has been postponed.

"Previously it was communicated that DMEPOS products listed on the PDAC Web site with HCPCS code K0009 will be end dated effective September 30, 2012," the PDAC Web site said in a Sept. 11 posting. "This effective date has been changed. The new effective date will now be February 28, 2013."

The K0009 HCPCS code is currently defined as "other manual wheelchair/base." Starting March 1, "the only products which may be billed to Medicare using code K0009 are those for which a written coding verification has been made by the PDAC contractor and that are listed in the Product Classification List in DMECS maintained on the PDAC Web site," the PDAC now says. "Products which have not received coding verification review from the PDAC must be billed with code A9270."

Manufacturers who produce manual chairs currently coded K0009 "will still be required to submit a new coding verification application to the PDAC for review and assignment of the correct code," the PDAC added.

All of this began, the PDAC said, because the DME MACs were informed that some products currently coded as K0009 "have not been updated with the most current codes available."

For more information on correct coding of products, visit the PDAC Web site or call the Contact Center at (877) 735-1326 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central time, Monday-Friday.