In our January 2009 issue’s Funding Essentials column, Mobility Management said, “In order to separate options and accessories that go onto power vs. manual wheelchairs, a new modifier has been created. The KE modifier is required on all options and accessories that will be placed on a PMD (power mobility device). This is Medicare’s sign to reduce the allowables on those codes by 9.5 percent.”
In reality, the KE modifier, says column author Claudia Amortegui of The Orion Group, “should go on all manual wheelchair options and accessories.”
Notes the CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Manual System dated Nov. 7, 2008, “The KE modifier is a pricing modifier that suppliers must use to identify when the same accessory HCPCS code can be furnished in multiple competitive and non-competitive bidding product categories. For example,
HCPCS code E0981 — Wheelchair Accessory, Seat Upholstery, Replacement Only, Each — can be used with both competitively bid standard and complex rehabilitative power wheelchairs, as well as with non-competitively bid manual wheelchairs or a miscellaneous power wheelchair. All fee schedules for PMD accessory codes with the KE modifier will receive a 5-percent covered item update for 2009, whereas the fee schedules for the PMD accessory codes without the KE modifier will receive the MIPPA-required (Medicare Improvements for Patients & Providers Act) 9.5-percent reduction for 2009…. Suppliers should bill the accessory code with the KE modifier when the accessory is used in conjunction with a non-competitively bid manual wheelchair (K0001 through K0009) or a miscellaneous PMD (K0898).”
MM regrets the error. To read the now-corrected January article, go to www.mobilitymgmt.com.
