With each quarterly update of CMS's Correct Coding Initiative (CCI), healthcare providers are faced with the potential of decreasing payments and increasing compliance risk. Improper billing of prohibited CCI code pairs will result in an immediate financial impact to the provider through delayed claims processing and/or denial of claims and a potential long-term impact of increased scrutiny of coding and billing practices by the OIG. From a "bottom-line" perspective, the CCI could result in hundreds of non-productive man-hours spent researching delayed/denied claims and potentially thousands of dollars of lost revenue. Fortunately, providers can minimize these negative outcomes by understanding the basics of the CCI and the methods available to appropriately bill, and be paid for, CCI-prohibited code pairs.