Home Health & Hospice Week

Also: You're still the one responsible for your quality data submission, not your vendor. Even if you didn't receive a PEPPER comparative billing report, you still need to pay attention to correct coding for patients who die or are discharged. So stressed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in its Nov. 28, 2012 Open Door Forum for hospice and home care providers. That's because a review of 2011 claims data showed more than 22,000 hospice claims reported a through date matching the patient's date of death, but a patient status code of other than expired, explained CMS's Wendy Tucker in the forum. Do this: When a patient dies, hospices generally should report a patient status code of 40 (expired in the home), 41 (expired in medical facility), or 42 (expired place unknown), Tucker noted. In contrast, many claims reviewed incorrectly listed patient status code 01 (discharge to the home) [...]