CMS has issued CR-9575 – Making Principal Diagnosis Codes Mandatory for Notice of Elections to be Accepted. The implementation date for this change is October 3, 2016.

CR-9575 will require a principal diagnosis in order for NOEs to be accepted by MAC. According to the change request, currently NOEs are being accepted without a principal diagnosis present. MAC’s report that this occurs on a high percentage of NOEs. This change request requires Medicare systems to return NOEs submitted without a principal diagnosis. Read more about CR-9575 here.