Home Health & Hospice Week

Look for the small silver lining regarding billing for a hospice patient for whom you didn't secure a face-to-face visit -- you at least won't get stuck with the non-covered patient's DME bill.

When you don't perform the F2F timely, you must discharge the beneficiary, HHH MAC NHIC explains in a newly posted question-and-answer set from its Nov. 14 Ask the Contractor Teleconference (ACT). In that situation, you "should then contact the DME supplier and advise them to bill Medicare since [the patient was] not covered by the Medicare hospice benefit," NHIC instructs in the Q&A.