The Medicare National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) published Procedure to Procedure edits
that seek to prevent unbundling of services and overpayment. The requirements state that if one code defines a subset of work of another code, the codes should not be reported separately, which would be considered double billing. The notice states that modifier -59 defines a “Distinct Procedural Service” which represents a service that is separate and distinct from another service with which it would usually be considered to be bundled.
