Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Note:

Tip: Educate Docs' Billers To Boost Hospice Referrals

You may boost your hospice referrals if you help your referring physicians learn to navigate Medicare's physician billing system for hospice patients. "Medicare doesn't do a real good job of explaining that," noted Debra Sellers, director of home care services for St. John's Health System in Springfield, Mo, at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice annual meeting in Las Vegas.

In her Oct. 4 session, Sellers recommended furnishing inservices for physicians' staff on how to bill Medicare for hospice patients' services.

Resource: For a tool from HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor CGS on how to bill Medicare for physician and nurse practitioner services related to the terminal diagnosis, go to www.cgsmedicare.com/hhh/education/materials/pdf/Physician_and_NP.pdf. A tool from Jurisdiction 4 Part B MAC Trailblazer Health describes how to bill both related and unrelated services from the physician's perspective: www.trailblazerhealth.com/Publications/Job%20Aid/HospiceModifiersGVGW.pdf.

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