CO13 / OA13: Date of death precedes date of service

There isn’t too much room to dispute Medicare when you receive this denial code.

First, verify that the rental equipment has been picked up. If you haven’t done the physical return, notify customer service for the pick-up. If the equipment was picked up but your system wasn’t updated, establish that this is an unusual event rather than a regular problem.

If you find that it is a recurring issue, then evaluate how pick-ups are being processed in your company’s system. Was it a training issue and the person who received the call was unsure about how to update the system? If so, offer training/retraining to establish the proper procedure not only for the actual equipment pick-up but also how to “pick up” the equipment in the system so that the claim doesn’t re-rent.

If the denial was for a single month or if there are multiple transactions, you will need to adjust off the balances and write off the amounts. Be sure to document the write-off for management so there will be a clear understanding about why the claim(s) were written off.

Sarah Hanna is a reimbursement consultant and vice president of ECS Billing & Consulting, Tiffin, Ohio, and specializes in proper billing protocols, Medicare coverage guidelines and billing office procedures. She can be contacted at 419/448-5332 or [email protected].

Based on analysis of 3,680,443 claims adjudicated by the Medicare contractors between July 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2006, and processed for RemitDATA customers. Source: RemitDATA, 866/885-2974, www.remitdata.com.