Tips to Find Local Coverage Determinations and Billing and Coding Instructionssp

We frequently receive suggestions through our website surveys to make it easier to find LCDs and the associated Billing and Coding articles.

All LCDs and associated Billing and Coding Articles are accessible from the NGS website, under the Medical Policy Center. The LCD and article indices provide a link for each document to the CMS Medicare Coverage Database (MCD), where the official versions of these coverage documents are housed.

Important: There are many procedures for which NGS does not have an LCD or article. If you do not find a coverage document for a procedure from searching in our Medical Policy Center, then it may not have a local determination.

This is an example from the index:

To Find an LCD:

1. Access the LCD Index
2. You may scroll through the list (in alphabetical order by title), or search the list using the title, LCD or article number, or CPT/HCPCS code by doing the following
   • Select ‘Ctrl’ and the letter ‘F’ on your keyboard to open a ‘Find on this page’ search box.
   • Type in your search term, and ‘enter’
3. (Safari [iPhone and iPad] Users instead tap then tab ‘Find on Page,ʼ type your search term and tap )
4. Select the applicable link to open the LCD, Billing and Coding Article or Response to Comments from Medicare Coverage Database where the official documents are housed.

Related Content

• CMS Internet-Only Manual, Publication 100-08, Medicare Program Integrity Manual, Chapter 13, Local Coverage Determinations
• CMS Internet-Only Manual, Publication 100-03, Medicare National Coverage Determinations (NCD) Manual
• MLN Matters® MM10901 Revised: Local Coverage Determinations (LCDs)
• MLN Matters® SE1421 Revised: How to Access Updates to ICD-10 Local Coverage Determinations in the CMS Medicare Coverage Database

Revised 4/30/2021