The 25 Codes That Leave Noridian's Nerve Block List on Sunday
Noridian's chronic pain nerve block policy retires October 31 and its replacement takes effect November 1 with 14 covered codes where the old one had 31. The 25 codes that come off drew $18.3 million of Medicare allowed in Noridian's own states in CY2024, and five of them carry four fifths of it.
Noridian's chronic pain nerve block policy lists 31 covered codes today.
On Sunday it lists 14.
The replacement, L40265, "Peripheral Nerve Injections and Procedures for Chronic Pain," went final with an original effective date of November 1. The policy it replaces, L35456, carries a retirement date of October 31. Noridian posted the retirement notice on September 17 and gave the reason in a single clause: the material is "now being addressed in the Peripheral Nerve Injections and Procedures for Chronic Pain LCD (L40265)."
Clean handoff on paper. The code lists are where it stops being clean.
Four other contractors run the same policy and theirs landed six days earlier, on October 25. CGS in Kentucky and Ohio, Palmetto across seven states, Wellpoint Federal across ten, WPS across six. Noridian's 13 states plus American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are the last to move, which makes this week the only week left where the old list still governs anything.
"What actually leaves a covered-code list when a contractor says the material is now addressed somewhere else?"
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