Home Health & Hospice Week

Get ready for changes to your hospice billing July 2.

Change #1: “A new hospice election period will be added to the Common Working File (CWF) system to carry election-related information,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services explains in MLN Matters Article SE18007. “The existing hospice benefit period screens will continue to look the same, but election-related fields on those screens (revocation indicators, NOE receipt dates) will no longer be used.”

Time frame: “MACs will convert all existing hospice benefit periods into the new election period and benefit period format if the revocation date on the benefit period is blank (current elections) or is 4 years old or less,” CMS explains.

“Older benefit periods will remain in Medicare systems unchanged. All new hospice elections received on or after July 2, 2018 will create periods in the new formats.”

The change will bring multiple benefits, CMS touts. They include ensuring benefit periods can be cancelled without removing the Notice of Election receipt date; allowing Notices of Termination/Revocation to be submitted at any time, rather than only when a benefit period covering the revocation date has been created by claims; and automatically removing benefit periods when all claims in the period are cancelled.

See the article at www.cms.gov/Outreachand-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNmattersArticles/downloads/se18007.pdf.

Change #2: A claims system change will ensure that the number of days counted to determine Routine Home Care rates “includes the days provided by another hospice when there is a transfer during a benefit period,” CMS says in MLN Matters Article MM10180.

Old way: “Previously, Medicare instructed you to account for this by reporting the benefit period start date as the admission date on your claim in the case of transfers,” CMS says. “While this workaround resulted in correct payments, it required you to submit misleading information.”

New way: As of July 2, the CWF will “identify prior days correctly in transfer situations, so that you no longer need to use this workaround.”

See the article at www.cms.gov/Outreachand-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNmattersArticles/downloads/mm10180.pdf.