Home Health & Hospice Week

Physicians who are balking at obtaining a National Provider Identifier number are getting a talking-to from CMS. You now can point them to a new educational article from CMS telling them they have to get an NPI if they want Medicare to pay for their patients' services they order. "Medicare will only reimburse for specific items or services when those items or services are ordered or referred by providers or suppliers authorized by Medicare statute and regulation to do so," CMS says in a MLN Matters article released Jan. 20 (SE1201). "Claims that a billing provider or supplier submits in which the ordering/referring provider or supplier is not authorized by statute and regulation will be denied as a non-covered service." CMS specifically lists home health as such a service in the article at www.cms.gov/MLNMattersArticles/Downloads/SE1201.pdf.