The National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC), in response to an emergency request from CMS, has approved a series of new codes to help facilitate medical billing for services rendered to victims of Hurricane Katrina. While the details and definitions have not yet been fully developed, the NUBC intends that the new codes will help track the cost of providing medical care to victims.
The new condition code, "DR," is intended to help CMS and other health plans identify claims for which the admission is related to a disaster. In addition, CMS has said that long-term care hospitals caring for Katrina evacuees will be excluded from the calculated statistics intended to ensure the average long-term care stay is 25 or more days. There could be other uses for this new claim identifier, but these uses will be further developed as CMS reviews and finalizes future disaster policies.
Other new codes approved by NUBC, but currently acting only as placeholders until implementation, are a new Occurrence Code, "DR," and Occurrence Span Code, "MR." The Occurrence Code could, for example, capture the date of a declared disaster, like Katrina, while the Occurrence Span Code could capture a date range - when a disaster was declared and when the disaster officially ended. These codes also could reflect the date that FEMA declared an area to be a disaster area.
In addition to these codes, a new Value Code, "DR," is intended to record a specific numeric or monetary amount pertaining to the disaster. It also is a placeholder for now.
NUBC plans to have this and additional information on its Web site at www.nubc.org, soon. Hospital billing personnel dealing with evacuees are urged by NUBC to check the site periodically for additional changes and updates.
