Drug Wastage (JW / JZ Units, Single-Dose Vial)
Single-dose-vial wastage: administered vs discarded units and whether the discard is billable with modifier JW (or JZ for zero waste).
Open the tool → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Vial size
- 50
- Administered dose
- 35
- Dose unit
- mg
- Billing unit size per the HCPCS descriptor
- 10
- Billing unit measure
- mg
- Vial type
- Single-dose vial (JW/JZ eligible)
Result: 35 mg dose = 4 administered units; the 50 mg single-dose vial = 5 units; 1 unit discarded -> modifier JW.
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What you enter
- Vial size
- Administered dose
- Dose unit
- Billing unit size per the HCPCS descriptor
- Billing unit measure
- Vial type: single-dose or multi-dose
How this is calculated
CMS Pub. 100-04 Ch. 17 §40 and CMS JW/JZ guidance: for a single-dose vial, bill the administered amount and the discarded amount with modifier JW; with no waste, append JZ (required since 2023-07-01). Multi-dose vials are not JW-eligible. Read the source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.
More in Billing and coding.