Home Health & Hospice Week

Stay tuned for new instructions regarding hospital billing for hospice patients. Last No-vember, CMS said in CR 8273 that MACs must "deny an inpatient hospital claim when the principal diagnosis on the inpatient claim matches one of the hospice diagnosis codes" starting April 7. "Services related to a hospice terminal diagnosis provided during a hospice period are included in the hospice payment and are not paid separately. An inpatient hospital claim will be denied when providers bill with a condition code 07 on an inpatient claim and the principal diagnosis on the inpatient claim is found to match one of the hospice diagnosis codes."

But now CMS has rescinded the CR and related MLN Matters article. The agency will re-place the documents "in the near future," it says at www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Guidance/Transmittals/Downloads/R1312OTN.pdf.

The initiative stems from Recovery Audit Contractor review results (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXII, No. 40).