Home Health & Hospice Week

• Take time to fill out some user ID-related paperwork if National Government Services is your contractor, or face billing disruption.

"Per Medicare security requirements, National Government Services will be conducting the annual recertification of all current online system users," the contractor says in a message to providers. For HHAs and hospices, that means recertifying user ID access for the Fiscal Intermediary Standard System (FISS)/Direct Data Entry (DDE). For suppliers, NGS will be recertifying user IDs for Claims Status Inquiry (CSI).

What you need to do: Complete the Excel-based 2010 User Access Recertification Form and submit it via e-mail by July 5, NGS instructs. The form is on NGS's website.

If Cahaba GBA is your intermediary and your FISS DDE user ID has expired due to lack of use, you should fill out and submit the "EDI Services Part A System Access Application" form to have access reinstated. This is a change from previous requirements, where you had to call the EDI Services department to secure reactivation, the intermediary says in a message to providers.

The change "is to comply with corporate and [CMS] security policies," Cahaba says. The form, which is available on Cahaba's website, must be submitted via fax.