On April 1, 2019, CMS implemented a new series of Common Working File (CWF) edits that are intended to better identify ground ambulance transports that are furnished in connection with an outpatient hospital service that is properly bundled to the skilled nursing facility (SNF) under the SNF Consolidated Billing regime. These edits work by comparing the ambulance claim to the associated outpatient hospital claim. Hospital claims were already subject to CWF edits designed to identify outpatient hospital services that should be bundled to the SNF. These hospital edits operate by referencing a list of Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) or Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes that correspond to outpatient hospital services that are expressly excluded from SNF Consolidated Billing. Hospital claims for outpatient services that are submitted with one of these excluded codes bypass the existing CWF edits, and are then sent to the appropriate Medicare Administrative Contractor for further editing and payment. Hospital claims submitted without one of these codes are denied for SNF Consolidated Billing. The new ambulance edits will extend these process one step further. The ambulance claim will be associated with the outpatient hospital claim on the same date. To the extent that hospital claim...
