The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has again clarified in Program Memorandum AB-01-118 that Medicare coverage is only applicable for splints and casts used to reduce a fracture or dislocation. In the 2001 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, the casting supplies were removed from the practice expenses for all Health Care Financing Administration Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Codes, including the CPT codes for fracture management and for casts and splints. Thus, for settings in which CPT codes are used to pay for services which include the provision of a cast or splint (e.g., 29345-29515), temporary "Q" codes were established to pay healthcare professionals for the supplies used in creating casts. The work and practice expenses involved with the creation of the cast or splint continued to be coded using the appropriate CPT code(s). Effective July 1, 2001, the use of the temporary codes described below replaced less specific coding for the casting and splinting supplies. The Inflation-Indexed Charge (IIC) effective on January 1, 2002, increased carrier payments for these items 3.2 percent as indicated below. Although a total of 51 new "Q" codes were implemented by CMS, a table containing the 22 codes that will most commonly be utilized by this specialty can be found here (pdf). To further assist you toward selecting the correct code(s) for your cast and splinting supplies provided to Medicare patients, a table containing a crosswalk to provide guidance to which supply codes are applicable for the various types of casts described by various CPT Codes is available by clicking here (pdf).  It is important to remember that these codes only apply to Medicare carrier claims at this time.