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 for changes to your DDE access this summer if NGS is your intermediary. NGS, formerly AHS and United Government Services, is switching to a new data center to host the Fiscal Intermediary Shared System (FISS), the intermediary says in a message to providers. You'll get a new user ID and notice some screen changes, NGS says. The intermediary will begin assigning new IDs in June, before the data center switch in July.

• Missouri is embracing managed care. The state Senate voted to move all of its 800,000 Medicaid beneficiaries into a Medicaid managed care plan called HealthNet by 2013, according to press reports. The plan would divide benes into three groups--a mostly urban group that would pay capitated fees to providers, a mostly rural group that would pay fee for service and a chronically ill patient group.

• Some states are tackling the issue of health insurance and it could affect home care providers' bottom lines. Maine Gov. John Baldacci (D) is proposing to fine employers that don't offer insurance to employees, as well as requiring health insurance for citizens with incomes of at least 400 percent of the federal poverty level, according to Business Insurance.
 
A previously implemented state program for small employers called Dirigo Health has not been successful in reducing the state's number of uninsured citizens, Business Insurance says.

Meanwhile, in Missouri, the state House is advancing a bill that would allow businesses with fewer than 50 employees to pay health insurance premiums with pre-tax dollars, the Kansas City Star reports.

• A Texas home care company has attracted $16 million in investment financing to fund an acquisition. Mount Vernon-based Jordan Healthcare is using the funds from Dallas-based private equity firm Trinity Hunt Partners to buy Addison-based Chartwell Home Care, Trinity notes in a release.

The acquisition establishes Jordan "as one of the largest regional providers of Medicaid and Medicare home care services for more than 15,000 clients/patients in Texas," the release says. The company's service area is nearly statewide, notes the Dallas Business Journal.

Expanding the company's Medicare services to Chartwell's previously Medicaid-only locations is one of Jordan's first growth strategies, the Journal says. Trinity was considering acquiring Chartwell itself before it invested in Jordan, Trinity's Pete Stein told the newspaper.