Home Health & Hospice Week

Don't forget to make this claims change. With a new fiscal year come more than new payment rates for Medicare hospices. Hospices will see payment rates increase less than 1 percent on average starting Oct. 1 (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XXI, No. 27 for payment details). Of course, individual agencies' rates of increase will vary based on wage data. But hospices also will face a new requirement for their claims. Under the 5010 claim format, the field for "other physician," where hospices report the certifying physician, is mapped to three possible physician identifying fields. So hospices need to report the physician info in the 2310F loop of the claim, CMS instructed in a transmittal and MLN Matters article back in April (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XXI, No. 18). Medicare is requiring the certifying physician's info on the claim when she differs from the attending physician, points out the National Association [...]