North Carolina Medicaid
NCTransition starts September 1, 2026
Beginning Sept. 1, 2026, NC Medicaid Direct and NC Medicaid Managed Care providers are encouraged to use E/M 99202-99215 with TH for prenatal or postpartum care. The bulletin identifies first prenatal visits after confirmation and antepartum visits where delivery and/or the postpartum visit is anticipated after Jan. 1, 2027. On Jan. 1, 2027, all current maternity service codes, including global billing, will be deleted from the fee schedule and new AMA maternity billing codes become effective. Clinical Coverage 1E-5 is being revised.
- Published
- 2026-07-10
- Transition starts
- September 1, 2026
- Billing starts
- January 1, 2027
- Evidence checked
- 2026-08-28
Billing notes and scope
- Codes affected
- Not published
- Modifiers
- Not published
- Global allowed through
- Not published
- Applies by
- Not published
- Product
- Not published
- Source excerpt
- Not published
Scope: Maternity medical billing under NC Medicaid Direct and NC Medicaid Managed Care.
Transition: The pre-2027 E/M transition is encouraged, not mandatory; health plans may not require individual E/M codes instead of current bundled codes for dates of service before Jan. 1, 2027. For pregnancies culminating with a postpartum visit before that date, existing codes including global, 59425 and 59426 may be billed. Record appropriate ICD-10-CM coding including gestational weeks, and support medical decision making or time under CPT guidelines.
Global billing: Existing global codes may be billed for pregnancies culminating with a postpartum visit before Jan. 1, 2027. All current maternity service codes, including global billing, will be deleted from the fee schedule on Jan. 1, 2027. The bulletin does not supply a complete cross-year claim procedure.
The bulletin itself confirms the Jan. 1, 2027 code replacement while Clinical Coverage 1E-5 is being revised. It points to AMA's website for the new, revised and deleted code list rather than reproducing that list. It is statewide program guidance and does not establish whether any individually named plan has issued separate instructions.