Summary & Overview

HCPCS M1400: Patients Who Died During Follow-Up

HCPCS Level II code M1400 denotes patients who died during the follow-up period and is used to document mortality outcomes associated with a specified post-service window. As an outcome code rather than a discrete clinical procedure, M1400 matters nationally for reporting quality, tracking mortality in care pathways, and supporting administrative records across care settings. Its use can affect case-level outcome reporting and aggregate quality measures collected by payers and health systems.

Key payers in the national context include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Readers will find a concise explanation of the code’s clinical meaning and service context, an overview of payer coverage considerations, and expected areas where the code appears in administrative and quality reporting workflows. The publication covers benchmarks and reporting practices where available, highlights relevant policy implications for outcome documentation, and summarizes clinical contexts in which mortality follow-up is captured.

Data not available in the input for associated taxonomies, ICD-10 mappings, and related codes. The content focuses on national-level interpretation and administrative use rather than state-specific policy or individualized clinical recommendations.

AetnaBlue Cross Blue ShieldCigna HealthUnitedHealthcareMedicareM1400HCPCS Level IImortalityoutcome reportingfollow-upquality measurementadministrative codingpost-acute carehospital reporting

Billing Code Overview

HCPCS Level II code M1400 indicates patients who died during the follow-up period. This code is used to capture the outcome of patient death occurring within a designated follow-up window after an index event or service.

Service type: Outcome reporting / mortality tracking
Typical site of service: Applicable across sites where follow-up is conducted, including inpatient, outpatient, post-acute care, and home-based follow-up settings

Data not available in the input.

Clinical & Coding Specifications

Clinical Context

A typical patient scenario involves an adult enrolled in a longitudinal clinical outcomes study or registry for a serious chronic or terminal condition (for example, advanced congestive heart failure, metastatic cancer, end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or progressive neurodegenerative disease). During scheduled follow-up visits, remote monitoring, or post-discharge surveillance, clinical staff document clinical status, interventions, and survival. If the patient dies during the follow-up period, the event is recorded, dated, and the record is closed for the study endpoint. Typical workflow: enrollment and baseline data collection; periodic follow-up visits or contact (in-person, phone, or electronic); documentation of death with source verification (medical record, death certificate, or coroner report); update of study registry and billing using the event code M1400 to indicate the patient died during follow-up; notify study coordinators, update vital status fields, and, when required, complete cause-of-death documentation or coding to underlying ICD-10 diagnosis codes.

Coding Specifications

Modifier	Description	When to Use
`22`	Increased procedural services	Use when unusually complex elements require additional documentation and payer allows for modifier with services associated with follow-up closure (rarely applied to administrative/event codes).

Taxonomy Code	Specialty	Notes
`207RH0000X`	Hospice and Palliative Medicine	Primary specialty caring for patients with terminal illness and documenting death during follow-up.
`207L00000X`	Internal Medicine	Physicians managing chronic conditions and conducting longitudinal follow-up.
`207Q00000X`	Family Medicine	Primary care providers who may document end-of-life events in outpatient follow-up.
`2080P0005X`	Cardiology	Specialists following advanced heart disease patients enrolled in outcomes studies.
`207K00000X`	Geriatric Medicine	Specialists managing frail, elderly patients with high mortality risk.

CPT Code	Description	Relationship to This Procedure
`99214`	Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient, moderate complexity	Commonly used for scheduled follow-up visits during which status and survival are assessed prior to eventual documentation of death.
`99304`	Initial nursing facility care, typically 30 minutes	Used for initial facility assessments in nursing homes for patients enrolled in longitudinal follow-up; death during follow-up may occur while under facility care.
`99024`	Postoperative follow-up visit, included in global service	Used for follow-up related to prior procedures; if death occurs during the postoperative period, this code may appear in the charting workflow.
`99499`	Unlisted evaluation and management service	Used for atypical encounters or administrative closure visits related to study follow-up when no standard E/M code fits.
`99080`	Special reports such as forms and reports; completion of forms	Used to bill administrative time for completion of death notification forms, registry closure, or study documentation related to a patient who died during follow-up.

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