How Charge Modifiers Work

Charge modifiers are stored at the payer’s level on a claim. During claim creation, charge modifiers are added when a primary payer is created. When you move from a primary payer to the secondary/tertiary payer, the charge modifiers from the primary payer are copied to the secondary/tertiary payer. However, you can change the copied charge modifiers to anything you want. Changes to charge modifiers will persist for that payer only, for example you can remove a GY modifier for a secondary payer that is not Medicare, and it will not affect the primary Medicare payer. After you change charge modifiers for a specific payer, it is always a good practice to check them for the current payer before you submit the claim.