Home Health & Hospice Week

Don’t forget that home health Notices of Admission are “right around the corner,” emphasized a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official in the Nov. 10 Home Health Open Door Forum. NOAs will replace no-pay Requests for Anticipated Payment come Jan. 1.

Watch out for a tricky NOA scenario when an episode of care spans the Jan. 1 implementation date, the CMS speaker told attendees. “For all beneficiaries receiving HH services in 2021 whose services will continue in 2022, the HHA shall submit an NOA with a one-time, artificial ‘admission’ date corresponding to the ‘From’ date of the first period of continuing care in 2022,” says recently released CR 12424, which addresses NOA implementation.

“For example, if a period of care begins in 2021 and ends on January 10, 2022, the HHA submits an NOA with an admission date of January 11, 2022 and then submits a claim when the 30-day period of care is over,” CMS explains in the CR released Sept. 10.

Critical: “The HHA should submit the January 11, 2022 admission date on all subsequent claims until the beneficiary is discharged and another NOA is required,” CMS says in the CR. “This is to ensure the claim is matched to the correct NOA and the correct receipt date is used for payment.”

The 18-page CR is at www.cms.gov/files/document/r10987cp.pdf.