Home Health & Hospice Week

One HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor is trying to clear up confusion for home health agencies and hospices that submit their claims to one MAC, but submit their cost reports or enrollment forms to another.

"If the home health or hospice is provider based, the Medicare Cost Report (MCR) and provider enrollment activities are processed by the MAC of the provider based facility," explains MAC CGS in a new website post. "Contact the personnel at the provider based facility to find out the MAC the MCR is submitted to. The CMS-855A will be processed by the MAC of the provider based facility."

Tricky: For electronic funds transfer (EFT) changes, "the MAC that processes the MCR and provider enrollment activities must complete the review and approve the EFT changes," CGS elaborates. "Once they have completed their review, they will send a copy of the approved EFT form to the HHH MAC to process and input into their Fiscal Intermediary Standard System."

Important: "The HHH MAC cannot accept EFT changes from the provider; they must come directly from the MAC," CGS says.

Enrollment activities for Changes of Ownership (CHOWs) might also prove confusing, the MAC allows. Agencies that are remaining freestand-ing, or switching from provider-based to freestanding, should submit 855 paperwork to their HHH MAC. Agencies that are remaining provider-based, or switching from freestanding to provider-based, should submit the paperwork to the provi-der's MAC, CGS says.