Home Health & Hospice Week

If you’re one of the many providers that will make use of Medicare’s accelerated payments during COVID-19, check out what’s required of you.

1. Locate the request form. Each MAC has its own, already-existing accelerated payment request form on its website, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services notes in a fact sheet about the accelerated payments. And new COVID-19 hotlines at each MAC can help you if needed.

2. Fill out the form. Completing the form should be relatively simple.“Each MAC has an existing APP request form that varies slightly from MAC to MAC, but none of the forms are longer than two pages,” explains law firm Hall Render.

The form must include:

• Identifying info including the agency’s legal business name, correspondence address, and National Provider Identifier (NPI).
• Amount requested based on your need (up to 100 percent of the Medicare payment amount for a three-month period).
• Reason for request — check box 2 “Delay in provider/supplier billing process of an isolated temporary nature beyond the provider’s/supplier’s normal billing cycle and not attributable to other third party payers or private patients.”
• A statement that the request is due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The signature of an authorized represen­tative of your agency.

Avoid: “Incomplete forms cannot be reviewed or processed, so it is vital that all required information is included with the initial submission,” CMS stresses in the fact sheet.

3. Submit the form. “Electronic submission will significantly reduce the processing time,” CMS tells providers. But agencies can also submit requests via fax, email, or mail.

4. Wait a week for processing. MACs will check applications to make sure providers meet the four eligibility requirements (see story, p. 94). Then they’ll notify the provider of the decision and, if approved, issue payment.

CMS aims for MACs to issue payment within seven calendar days of the request. But “the ability of MACs to meet this deadline may be impacted by the number and timing of APP requests,” Hall Render cautions.“The sooner a request is submitted, the more likely the MAC will be able to issue payment consistent with that time frame.”

5. Mark your repayment date. MACs will start offsetting your accelerated payment 120 calendar days from issuing the payment.