Home Health & Hospice Week
NATIONWIDE RAC PROGRAM COMING SOON
Temporary hold-up resolved, CMS says. The CMS will begin provider outreach activities in the next few months, it says. Then providers will begin receiving "correspondence" from the RACs. The permanent and national program will be implemented by Jan. 1, 2010. Thanks to the protest resolution, providers will have two RAC subcontractors to know about, • Thanks to the Senate's requirement to pare down the bill's cost, no home care-specific provisions made it into that house's legislation. But the House-passed version still contains the retroactive delay to the hospice budget neutrality adjustment factor (BNAF) cuts that took effect Oct. 1. In working out a compromise bill between the House and Senate, industry advocates hope to see the hospice provision included in the final bill that goes to President At press time, it appeared the hospice provision was going to make it into the finalized legislation the House and Senate were compromising upon,cheered the Other provisions that affect home care providers less directly provide additional funds for Medicaid, health care information technology, and flu preparedness. • Participating suppliers must always accept assignment while non-participating suppliers may choose which items on which to accept assignment and may bill more for them. Beneficiaries pay only the copay when they receive items from participating suppliers, CMS explains. For non-participating suppliers, beneficiaries must pay the entire charge. • In the meantime, HHS Assistant Secretary • "Claims in location S M95HG have been corrected and are being released for processing," RHHI The problem has hamstrung some providers due to sequential billing requirements. "Once the affected claims begin to process to completion sequential billing can resume," Palmetto instructs. The intermediary earlier urged providers to seek accelerated payments if necessary. "Previously issued accelerated payments are scheduled for recoupment beginning March 2, 2009," Palmetto now reports. • • Gov. • "All services that are owned and operated by an applicant organization for accreditation are required to be surveyed, but there will be no organization wide accreditation decision generated as a result of the survey of all of the required components,"says the Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based accrediting body. "Each component will receive its own accreditation decision, and each component's decision would not impact another component's decision,"the Joint Commission explains. • • "This case should make it perfectly clear that the [ According to U.S. Attorney A federal court judge sentenced King to 24 months in prison and two years supervised release for conspiracy to commit health care fraud. A whistleblower lawsuit against King, which first brought the matter to authorities' attention, is still ongoing, Martin notes in the release. The government has intervened in the "King's sentence reflects that persons who create false documents knowing that those documents will be used in a health care fraud scheme will be pursued and prosecuted," Martin says.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Prospective Payment System; RECONCILE YOUR PPS CLAIMS OR RISK LOSSES
Don’t let the confusing PPS refinements trip up your billing. If you don’t keep on [...] - Reimbursement:
PPS ADJUSTMENTS HIT HANGUPS
Don't touch these suspended claims. Your wait for your corrected prospective payment system claims may [...] - Competitive Bidding:
CMS PROPOSES BIDDING DELAY -- BUT NOT FOR LONG
Suppliers give Congress an earful at hearing about the program. Suppliers may not be getting [...] - Medicaid:
OVERLAPPING HOME CARE SERVICES COULD MEAN MEDICAID OVERPAYS
New OIG report should be a 'wake-up call' for HHAs, trade group warns. If you're [...] - Industry Notes:
NATIONWIDE RAC PROGRAM COMING SOON
Temporary hold-up resolved, CMS says. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Recovery Audit Contractor [...] - Final Claim Payment Variance Worksheet
