Medicaid Bulletin

Medicaid Bulletin Monthly Digest

Medicaid Bulletin Archive

Articles beginning January 2018 are available in the blog format.

North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health Benefits (DHB) has contracted with Health Management Systems (HMS) to conduct Overpayment Recovery Reviews for Medicaid/Health Choice recipients.

NC Medicaid has adopted the American Medical Association's new Current Procedural Terminology® (CPT) Category I codes for Research Based Behavioral Health Treatment, effective for dates of service on or after Jan. 1, 2019.

Psychiatric collaborative care management services must be rendered under the direction of a treating physician or non-physician practitioner, typically in a primary care setting.  These services are rendered when a beneficiary has a diagnosed psychiatric disorder and requires assessment, care planning and provision of brief interventions. 

New or amended clinical coverage policies are available on Telemedicine and Telepsychiatry, Outpatient Specialized Therapies and Bone Mass Measurement 

Bone Mass Measurement policy has been updated to reflect the addition of anorexia nervosa as an approved diagnosis for beneficiaries with other conditions or currently receiving medical therapies known to cause low bone mass.

Effective Feb. 25, 2019, the North Carolina Medicaid and NC Health Choice programs cover caplacizumab-yhdp for injection, for intravenous or subcutaneous use (Cablivi) for use in the Physician Administered Drug Program when billed with HCPCS code J3590 - Unclassified biologics.

NC Medicaid has received calls concerning claim denials for some services provided by nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs).

To minimize the administrative burden on providers as NC Medicaid transitions to managed care, the Provider Data Contractor (PDC) will supplement the state’s existing provider credentialing data to the Prepaid Health Plans (PHPs). This will support the PHP’s ability to make quality determinations during Medicaid Managed Care provider network contracting activities. The PHPs will make their quality determination policy public once approved by NC Medicaid.

Recommended updates to the NC Medicaid and Health Choice Preferred Drug List (PDL) as approved by the NC Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee and the NC Physician Advisory Group (PAG) were posted for the required 45-day public comment period on Apr. 2, 2019.

April is the last month to submit an attestation for Program Year 2018. The NC Medicaid EHR Incentive Payment System (NC-MIPS) will close for Program Year 2018 at midnight on Apr. 30, 2019. After that no changes can be made. Eligible professionals (EP) are strongly advised to review their attestation and documentation for accuracy and completeness