Home Health & Hospice Week
LAWMAKERS DEMAND CLEAR MOBILITY EQUIPMENT GUIDELINES
Documentation requirements are inconsistent, senators blast.
Two U.S. senators want mobility documentation requirements clarified.
In an Aug. 5 letter, Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, both Pennsylvania Republicans, asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide clear documentation instructions for mobility equipment. Providers "regularly encounter inconsistencies within the four DMERC regions on how documentation is interpreted," the letter stated.
Durable medical equipment regional carriers emphasize physician chart notes, which often lack the specificity DMERCs require, the letter noted.
Therefore, "evaluations from other healthcare clinicians or letters of medical necessity from the patient's ordering practitioner should be considered part of the medical record and used by claims processors in the event of an audit," the senators wrote.
The NCCI edits, which prevent billing of certain CPT codes simultaneously, will apply only to therapy services NOT under a plan of care, CMS makes clear in a Medlearn Matters article revised Aug. 8. You can look up the edits at www.cms.hhs.gov/providers/hopps/cciedits.
The home care proposal is just one segment of a larger bill addressing long-term care financing issues.
The page is at
This means that you won't see quick reimbursement on these claims, as your FI tries to identify - and prevent - any potentially excessive payments. The edit comes after the HHS Office of Inspector General uncovered millions in provider overpayments due to clerical billing errors. More information is at
The settlement, along with legal fees and related costs, will result in a total accrual of $20 million that will be reflected in the company's financial statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2005.
The company's Medicare revenues increased 21 percent over the year-ago quarter to $53.8 million. But thanks to a 3.7 percent decline in CIGNA HealthCare revenues, Gentiva's commercial insurance revenues were up only 1.4 percent to $117.1 million for the quarter.
Hernando agreed to delay its entry into the county until June 2005, and it now has quietly started serving patients in the area, the newspaper reports. The county still will face unmet need for hospice services this year, the state estimates.
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LAWMAKERS DEMAND CLEAR MOBILITY EQUIPMENT GUIDELINES
Documentation requirements are inconsistent, senators blast.
Two U.S. senators want mobility documentation requirements clarified.
In an Aug. [...]
