Home Health & Hospice Week

Hint: Record all beneficiary insurance cards, not just the Medicare one. Don't let Medicare Secondary Payer get you -- and your cash flow -- down. You can avoid common MSP billing errors if you take heed of CMS's latest instructions on the bill type, which the agency issued last week as part of a MLN Matters article. Take a look at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' latest MSP billing tips to ensure that your claims process correctly the first time you submit them. 1. Ask Patients About All of Their In-surers. Ask a patient for all of his insurance cards. In some cases, a patient will present only his Medicare identification card, failing to give you any ad-ditional cards. This could cause unnecessary denials if you're inappropriately billing Medicare as primary. 2. Bill Primary Payer First, Not Simul-taneously. You can't submit claims to the patient's primary payer and the MSP [...]