Clinical Review Judgment

Medicare claim review contractors (Carriers, Fiscal Intermediaries (called affiliated contractors, or ACs), Medicare Administrative Contractor (MACs), the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) contractor, and Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs), along with Program Safeguard Contractors (PSC) and Zone Program Integrity Contractors (ZPIC) are tasked with measuring, detecting and correcting improper payments in the Fee for Service (FFS) Medicare Program.
CR 6954 updates the Medicare Program Integrity Manual by adding a new Section (3.14 — Clinical Review Judgment) which clarifies existing language regarding clinical review judgments; and also requires that Medicare claim review contractors instruct their clinical review staffs to use the clinical review judgment process when making complex review determinations about a claim.
This clinical review judgment involves two steps:

• The synthesis of all submitted medical record information (e.g. progress notes, diagnostic findings, medications, nursing notes, etc.) to create a longitudinal clinical picture of the patient; and
• The application of this clinical picture to the review criteria to determine whether the clinical requirements in the relevant policy have been met.

NOTE: Clinical review judgment does not replace poor or inadequate medical record documentation, nor is it a process that review contractors can use to override, supersede or disregard a policy requirement (policies include laws, regulations, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) rulings, manual instructions, policy articles, national coverage decisions, and local coverage determinations).