Home Health & Hospice Week

CMS funds counselors in every state.

If Medicare managed care plans are confusing your patients, you may want to refer them to a Medicare-funded insurance counselor.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is giving $30 million in grants to State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs) to "educate beneficiaries about health insurance coverage, including Medigap, Medicare Advantage options, Medicare prescription drug coverage, and long-term care financing," CMS says in a release. "In recent months, they assisted millions of beneficiaries with finding drug plans suited to their individual needs."

CMS funds 54 SHIPs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands, the agency says. "SHIPs are intended to serve beneficiaries who want information, counseling, and assistance beyond what is available through other CMS channels, including 1-800-MEDICARE and www.medicare.gov," CMS explains. CMS has doubled its SHIP funding since 2003.

For a complete list of state health insurance counseling programs, go to www.shiptalk.org.

Caution: Counselors could be biased toward managed care products, which don't offer the best home care coverage, experts warn. • Beware this National Provider Identifier snafu: List your legal business name on your NPI application, or your payments and remittance advices could go astray.

"The 'Organization Name' field of the NPI application should reflect your Legal Business Name only," stresses regional home health intermediary Associated Hospital Service, now known as National Government Services. "It should not reflect the dba [doing business as] name or any other name," AHS/ NGS says in an April 13 email to providers.

"If you wish to include a dba name or other name as part of your NPI application, you may indicate this name in the 'Other Name' field of the NPI application," AHS/NGS adds. Your legal business name is the one you use to file tax returns with the IRS, according to the National Plan & Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Web site.

Many providers have incorrect names listed with NPPES,  AHS/NGS says. Providers should "re-view the Organization Names listed on their NPI notifications, and make any necessary changes with NPPES."

To change your NPPES information, contact the NPI enumerator at 1-800-465-3203, or go online to https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/Welcome.do, AHS/ NGS instructs. • You can take advantage of the new Home Health Quality Improvement national campaign, even if you don't want to sign up for it. You can get the latest best practice intervention package at www.homehealthquality.org/hh/hha/interventionpackages/ecp.aspx, even if you're not enrolled in the HHQI campaign. This month's package focuses on emergency care planning.

But if you don't sign up for the program, you're in the minority. More than 4,900 of the 8,838 home health agencies in the country have registered to participate in the campaign, the HHQI Web site says. • Get ready [...]