NCCI 2026Q3 tables · reviewed September 19, 2026

Can you bill 99214 and 96372 together?

99214: office visit, established patient, moderate complexity. 96372: therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic injection, SC or IM. · NCCI 2026q3 · Methodology

Billing 99214 and 96372 together: the short version

Yes, when the visit was a significant, separately identifiable evaluation beyond the decision to inject — and then modifier 25 goes on 99214, because in the 96372 / 99214 edit (in place since October 2020) the E/M is the column-2 code. A visit whose only content was “patient here for injection” does not bill an E/M at all.

Adding 25 to a 99214 whose only content was the decision to inject bills an E/M that the record does not support; the recoupment covers every such visit in the audit window.

Code this visit

Free claim calculator · Medicare basis

Denosumab 60 mg subcutaneous for osteoporosis, given at a visit where the physician also managed the patient’s new hypertension. The injection and drug are below; the office visit (99214) is added by the practice with modifier 25 on the E/M line:

LineDescriptionUnitsModMedicare allowed
J0897Prolia (1 unit = 1 mg)60JZ$1,806.06
96372SC therapeutic injection1$15.36
Medicare-basis total$1,821.42

Any drug in the catalog, NDC lines, JW/JZ — free. A payer’s policy and your contracted rate come with the free 30-day trial.

What the NCCI table says about 99214 and 96372

The 99214 / 96372 pair as it stands in the CMS PTP tables for 2026q3 (as of 2026-07-01), identical on the practitioner and hospital-outpatient tables:

Practitioner table
Modifier indicator 1

99214 (column 2) denies as included in 96372 (column 1) unless the 99214 line carries a distinct-service modifier — 25 on the E/M — and the record supports a distinct service.

Column 1 96372 · column 2 99214 · edit effective October 2020.

Hospital outpatient table
Modifier indicator 1

Same edit, same direction: column 1 96372, column 2 99214, since October 2020. A UB-04 carrying 96372 and 99214 is adjudicated exactly as the CMS-1500 is.

Why the answer is what it is

Since 1 October 2020 the NCCI practitioner table has paired 96372 as column 1 with the established-patient office visits 99212–99215 as column 2, modifier indicator 1. The injection is assumed to include the minimal evaluation needed to give it — confirming the patient, the drug and the dose — and an E/M billed alongside it denies as included unless the E/M line carries 25. (99211 is the exception in the other direction: its practitioner-table edit with 96372 has indicator 0, so a nurse visit never bills with an injection in the office.)

Modifier 25 is a statement, and the note has to back it. A 99214 supports 25 when the record shows a problem addressed beyond the injection: a new complaint worked up, a chronic condition adjusted, a medication changed, or the documentation elements for moderate-complexity medical decision making on something other than the drug being given. The osteoporosis check-in that precedes a routine Prolia dose is not that; a hypertension medication change at the same visit is.

The claim builder above renders the injection and the drug — the 96372 unit and 60 units of J0897 with JZ — and does not add the E/M, because whether the visit qualified is a documentation judgment the builder cannot make. On the claim the practice files, the 99214 line carries 25 and the 96372 line carries nothing. For Medicare, the injection code is also what makes the drug’s J-code payable under the incident-to rules; a drug billed with no administration line raises its own question.

When 99214 is its own service beside 96372

An E/M with its own reason is the test — content, not time or place: a problem evaluated or managed beyond the injection, documented to the level billed. Modifier 25 asserts that; the note proves it.

Units: the MUE on each code

CodeDescriptorPractitioner MUE / dayFacility MUE / dayAdjudication · rationale
99214office visit, established patient, moderate complexityOutside the drug-and-administration MUE tables held here (E/M codes are not in scope).
96372therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic injection, SC or IM45MAI 3 · Clinical: Data

96372 is MAI 3: units are summed across the date of service, and a documented medical-necessity appeal can pay units above the limit. Other codes: MUE lookup.

The rule behind it

No drug-administration hierarchy rule is involved. The answer is the 96372 / 99214 procedure-to-procedure edit above plus the definition of modifier 25 (CPT Appendix A; NCCI Policy Manual ch. I §D and ch. XI §A): an E/M on the same date as a procedure is separately payable only when it is significant and separately identifiable from the work inherent in the procedure.

What the record has to show

The denial this pair produces, and the fix

CO-97 on the 99214 line when it is billed without 25 alongside 96372. If the record supports a separately identifiable evaluation, resubmit with 25 on 99214; if it does not, accept the denial — do not add 25 to make it pay. A 96372 denial is a different problem, usually the drug’s coverage or a missing route.

What payers pay for 96372

The median payer contract pays 126% of Medicare on 96372. On 96372 the highest payer median is Blue Shield of California’s $67.48 and the lowest BCBS Arizona’s $10.96, against Medicare’s $15.36. Pick a state below for each payer’s own number where you bill.

CodeMedicare (PFS, office)Median payer contractMiddle half of payer mediansPayers
96372$15.36$19.31 (126%)$17.22–$24.1637

1,766 payer×state medians for 96372 from 37 payers’ Transparency-in-Coverage files (2026-Q2-06); Medicare = national non-facility PFS.

This claim priced by your payer — Prolia’s rate on the drug line, 96372 at the payer’s contracted amount, the payer’s policy on Prolia (prior auth, covered diagnoses), and the patient’s share — is the same claim in your free account.

Price this claim for your payer — start free →

Free 30-day trial, no card. The claim above opens in Claim Check with the drug, dose, setting and your payer already filled in.

Questions billers ask about 99214 and 96372

Does modifier 25 go on 96372 or on 99214?

On 99214. In the 96372 / 99214 PTP edit the E/M is the column-2 code, and 25 is an E/M-only modifier by definition (“significant, separately identifiable E/M service by the same physician on the same day of the procedure”). 96372 never carries 25; if a payer’s system also wants XU on 96372 it is applying a different edit, not this one.

The nurse gave the injection and the patient was not seen by the physician. Is 99211 billable with 96372?

No. The 96372 / 99211 edit has modifier indicator 0 on the practitioner table, so in the office 99211 is never separately payable with an injection on the same date, even with 25. The claim is 96372 and the drug; the nurse’s time is inside the injection code.

The physician only assessed the patient to decide she could have the Prolia today. Is that a 99214-25?

No. The evaluation needed to decide to proceed with the injection is part of 96372. An E/M with 25 requires a problem beyond the injection — a new symptom, a change in another condition’s management — documented to the level of the code billed.

Sources