Home Health & Hospice Week

First national training call on the bidding program is coming up.

Durable medical equipment suppliers are fighting tooth and nail to halt round one of competitive bidding slated to begin July 1, but there seems to be no stopping the bidding steamroller.

In addition to two earlier MLN Matters articles on bidding, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has now issued a third article addressing exceptions and "special circumstances."

"This article will be of particular interest to physicians and other treating practitioners who are enrolled DMEPOS suppliers; physicians and others who order or refer DMEPOS items or services for their patients; skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities; and physical therapists and occupational therapists in private practice who are Medicare enrolled DMEPOS suppliers," CMS says about the article at www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/SE0807.pdf.

The first two articles contain a bidding overview and address round one particulars on grandfathering, repair and replacement and other specifics (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVII, No. 14).

CMS has started informing DMEPOS referral sources about the coming round of bidding as well. "If you order, refer or supply certain medical equipment and supplies, such as oxygen or power wheelchairs, you should know about a new Medicare program that may change the suppliers your patients will need to use," the notice to physicians, providers and suppliers says.

Mark your calendar: CMS will offer a 90-minute bidding training call for suppliers and physicians on May 13 at 12:30 pm ET. "The call will give a general overview of the new program and address some of the exceptions and situations you may encounter as the program is implemented," the agency says in an email notice.

You must register for the call at www.2.eventsvc.com/palmettogba/051308. Or a replay is available until May 17 by calling 1-800-642-1687 (passcode 45744159).

Resources: Bidding information is online at www.cms.hhs.gov/CompetitiveAcqforDMEPOS and www.dmecompetitivebid.com.

• You need to test your NPI-only claims if you haven't yet. "CMS is concerned that the percentage of Medicare claims with NPI-only is not growing fast enough," the agency says in a recent message to providers. Starting May 23, CMS will require NPI-only claims that do not contain legacy numbers such as OSCAR numbers.

CMS has declared May 7 as "legacy free day" and has requested certain clearinghouses to test NPI-only claims on that day, it says. "This exercise will help Medicare providers evaluate their NPI readiness prior to the May 23, 2008 deadline," the agency expects.

Last chance: If claims reject or suspend, providers can resolve those problems before the deadline hits and cash flow grinds to a halt.

• Home care providers are still facing claims processing headaches due to the Fiscal Intermediary Shared System update that went into place April 7. "Claim accounts receivables (ARs) that originated under your Oscar provider number are not being offset by the claim payments and settlement payments that are now being generated under your Oscar/National Provider Identifier," explains regional home health intermediary Cahaba GBA in a recent message to providers.

Do this: "You may receive demand letters when the claim AR becomes 60 days old," Cahaba says. "Please submit payment as instructed."

Home health agencies served by National Government Services still aren't seeing correct remittance advices. They've been receiving one for their NPI number and one for their legacy number and they don't always reconcile.

Some RAs also have multiple payor and payee loops, NGS adds in a message to providers.

Out of luck: Providers have asked "about the possibility of recreating the electronic remittances affected by the above issues," NGS notes. CMS says "remittances will not be recreated as a result of the problems identified above."

• You can keep Medicare's bewildering array of claims review projects straight with a new educational product. The 16-page document, "Medicare Claim Review Programs: MR, NCCI Edits, MUEs, CERT, and RAC" offers a just-the-facts primer on Medicare's pre- and post-payment claims review systems.

The booklet, which features simple descriptions of each program and frequently asked questions on a few of them, is available at www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/MCRP_Booklet.pdf.

• Hospices have gotten a breather on new claims data requirements. After bitter complaints from providers, CMS has "temporarily" suspended reporting of visits by non-hospice staff in general inpatient settings, the agency says in April 29 Transmittal No. 1494 (CR 5567).

"All other visit reporting requirements ... remain unchanged," CMS says in the transmittal.

The missive also contains new details for how to report visits. "CMS has removed the words 'medically' and 'direct' from the reasonable and necessary patient visit description of a hospice visit," cheers the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. That should make defining a visit easier.

Reminder: Reporting hospice visit data is optional until July 1.

The transmittal is at www.cms.hhs.gov/transmittals/downloads/R1494CP.pdf.

• Negotiations over this year's Medicare package continue. Senators sent a "Dear Col-league" letter to Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Minority Member Charles Grassley (R-IA), urging them to avoid cuts to home care and hospice, NAHC reports.

"We believe that further reductions in home health and hospice payments would be counterproductive to efforts to control overall health care costs," says the letter sent by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Christopher Bond (R-MO) and Jack Reed (D-RI).

Baucus plans to craft a Medicare package by mid-May, NAHC points out.

• Visiting Nurse Associations have a reason to celebrate this month. May 4-11 is National VNA Week, notes the VNAs of America.

"As part of the VNA Week recognition, VNAA will be highlighted in an audio interview on all American Airlines flights both domestic and international, throughout the month of May," the trade group says.

• You will see a new look from Cahaba GBA's Web site starting May 1. "This change will improve provider access to home health and hospice information, as well as Web site search results," Cahaba says.

But it will also require you to make all new bookmarks for your Cahaba Web sites, the intermediary adds. Current Web pages will carry only information on non-home care providers going forward.

• Publicly announced mergers and acquisitions in the home care market were up slightly last quarter, says health care M&A analyst Irving Levin Associates. There were 11 deals in the first quarter of 2008, compared with nine the previous quarter and 10 the same quarter in 2007, notes Norwalk, CT-based Irving Levin.

• National home care chain Amedisys Inc. announced more increased earnings for the latest quarter. The Baton Rouge, LA-based company reported net income of $16.5 million on revenues of $213.1 million for the quarter ended March 31. That's a 22 percent increase over net income of $13.3 million and a 39 percent increase over revenues of $153.6 million for the same period in 2007.

Amedisys has established a clinical division dedicated to reducing falls and injuries in the chronic population, the company adds in a release. Amed-isys piloted the falls reduction program in 33 sites across the country in 2007, it says.

• VITAS' earnings continue to climb. Chemed Corp., the parent of the Miami-based hospice chain, reported VITAS net income of $19.4 million on revenues of $199.0 million for the quarter ended March 31. That compares to a $15.0 million profit on $184.0 million for the same period last year.

VITAS has no hospice cap liability for 2008 so far, Chemed notes in a release.