A0998: Ambulance response and treatment, no transport
A0998 is a HCPCS Level II code for ambulance response and treatment, no transport. It belongs to the Transportation, Medical & Surgical Supplies, Administrative section. Medicare does not pay it: see the coverage note below before you bill it.
Medicare coverage: Not payable by Medicare
Medicare does not pay this code. It may still be valid for another payer, but a Medicare claim carrying it will not be reimbursed.
From the coverage field of the CMS Alpha-Numeric HCPCS File, release 2026Q4-Oct. This states Medicare’s position on the code, not on your particular claim.
Physician fee schedule statusI
Not valid for Medicare purposes. Medicare uses another code.
Global period: XXX
Want the dollar amount for your locality? The fee calculator applies your GPCI and the current conversion factor.
Medically Unlikely Edits: units per day
The most units of A0998 Medicare will pay on one date of service. Bill more on a single line and it is denied. The limit is not the same in every setting, so the row that matters is the one matching the claim you are building.
- practitioner
- 0, never payable MAI 3: Date of Service Edit: Clinical · CMS Policy
- outpatient
- 0, never payable MAI 3: Date of Service Edit: Clinical · CMS Policy
The adjudication indicator decides whether exceeding the limit is worth appealing at all: MAI 1 is a line edit you can support with documentation, MAI 3 is a date-of-service edit that is also appealable, and MAI 2 is absolute, no documentation overrides it. CMS MUE 2026Q4.
The CMS record for A0998
- Long descriptor
- Ambulance response and treatment, no transport
- Short descriptor
- Ambulance response/treatment
- Added
- January 1, 2006
- BETOS
- O1A
- Pricing indicator
- 00: Not priced by Part B
The official wording. This is what the code means.
CMS's 28-character form, which is what shows up on a remittance advice.
When CMS introduced the code.
Berenson-Eggers Type of Service: CMS's own analytic grouping.
Service not separately priced by Part B, not covered, bundled into another service, or used by Part A only.
Codes adjacent to A0998
HCPCS has no hierarchy: related items simply sit next to each other in the numbering. If A0998 is not quite right, the correct code is very often within a few positions of it.
- A0430Ambulance service, conventional air services, transport, one way (fixed wing)
- A0431Ambulance service, conventional air services, transport, one way (rotary wing)
- A0432Paramedic intercept (pi), rural area, transport furnished by a volunteer ambulance company which is prohibited by state law from billing third party payers
- A0433Advanced life support, level 2 (als 2)
- A0434Specialty care transport (sct)
- A0435Fixed wing air mileage, per statute mile
- A0436Rotary wing air mileage, per statute mile
- A0888Noncovered ambulance mileage, per mile (e.g., for miles traveled beyond closest appropriate facility)
- A0999Unlisted ambulance service
- A2001Innovamatrix ac, per square centimeter (add-on, list separately in addition to primary procedure)
- A2002Mirragen advanced wound matrix, per square centimeter (add-on, list separately in addition to primary procedure)
- A2004Xcellistem, 1 mg
- A2005Microlyte matrix, per square centimeter (add-on, list separately in addition to primary procedure)
- A2006Novosorb synpath dermal matrix, per square centimeter (add-on, list separately in addition to primary procedure)
- A2007Restrata, per square centimeter (add-on, list separately in addition to primary procedure)
- A2008Theragenesis, per square centimeter (add-on, list separately in addition to primary procedure)