National Modifier and Condition Code to Identify Items or Services Related to the 2010 Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

This article identifies a new modifier and a new condition code that must be used to identify items or services related to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. You should begin to place the modifier or condition code on claims submitted as of January 3, 2011. As a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, CMS plans to monitor the potential health and cost impacts of the oil spill on Medicare beneficiaries, in both the short and long-term. In order to ensure that such health care services and costs are properly identified, CMS is requiring that every Medicare Fee-For-Service claim be specifically identified if it is for an item or service furnished to a Medicare beneficiary, where the provision of such item or service is related, in whole or in part, to an illness, injury, or condition that was caused by or exacerbated by the effects, direct or indirect, of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (hereafter referred to as the “Gulf oil spill”) and/or circumstances related to such oil spill, including but not limited to subsequent clean-up activities. Claims from physicians, other practitioners, and suppliers must be annotated with the modifier “CS” for each line item where the item or service is so related. Similarly, claims from institutional billers must be annotated with a condition code of “BP” when the entire claim is so related or with the “CS” modifier for each relevant line item when only certain line items are so related. • CS modifier: “Item or service related, in whole or in part, to an illness, injury, or condition that was caused by or exacerbated by the effects, direct or indirect, of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, including but not limited to subsequent clean-up activities.” • BP condition code is “Gulf oil spill related”: “This code identifies claims where the provision of all services on the claim are related, in whole or in part, to an illness, injury, or condition that was caused by or exacerbated by the effects, direct or indirect, of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and/or circumstances related to such spill, including but not limited to subsequent clean-up activities.”