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Home Health & Hospice Week

Coding:

Quash Your Q Code 'Place of Stay' Confusion

Published on Tue Jul 28, 2009

Keep this in mind when coding for hospice care. Too many hospice providers are billing for place of service incorrectly -- and that could mess up more than reimbursement. Hospices are treating patients in residential facilities and then incorrectly using HCPCS code Q5001 (Patient's home/residence) to get paid, according to regional home health intermediary Cahaba GBA's August newsletter. Problem: HCPCS Q5001 is for when agencies provide hospice care in benes' homes -- and while "a residential care facility may serve as a beneficiary's residence, the beneficiary is actually residing in a facility," Cahaba points out. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also wants agencies to carefully evaluate the available Q codes and then choose the one that accu rately names the place of service. CMS is collecting place of service data for all hospice claims. If you choose the wrong codes, its data won't be accurate. For most patients not living [...]
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