The National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NASMD) wrote a letter to CMS requesting guidance on implementing the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI), as outlined in the national health care reform law.  The letter outlines issues Medicaid agencies are currently facining in implementing the CCI and what nature of CMS guidance would be most useful.

From the report: While considerable discussion has occurred surrounding the extent to which National Correct Coding Initiatives (NCCI) must be implemented, additional discussion and guidance around the statement “effective for claims filed on or after October 1, 2010” may be warranted. The Correct Coding Initiative edits, which are part and parcel to the CCI methodologies, are released quarterly. It will be important to understand if the intent of CMS is to edit claims against CCI in a “date sensitive” fashion, only applying the CCI edits for a particular quarter against a claims with a corresponding date that falls within that same quarter. If this is the intent, then Medicaid programs will have to prepare to edit claims “filed on or after October 1st” against NCCI files from previous quarterly releases. If this is not the intent, then CMS must identify the specific NCCI file they wish to use for editing purposes.

Full report: CMS Letter on CCI Implementation (PDF | 85KB)

National Association of State Medicaid Directors.  (2010).  CMS letter on CCI implementation.  Kohler, A. and Steckel, C.