Home Health & Hospice Week

You'd better brush up on your billing security procedures if NGS/NHIC is your Medicare contractor, or you'll get locked out of the system. If you use National Government Services' Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Gateway to enter your claims, you'll have to reset your user ID password every 60 days, NGS says in a message to providers. That's up from the 90-day reset schedule that was in place prior to Oct. 4. "This will impact existing passwords at that time that are in the 60-90 time period," NGS stresses. You'll also have your Submitter (Sender) ID suspended for inactivity after 90 days now, NGS says. That's compared to the 365-day deadline for inactivity before. If a suspension occurs, "the user will need to contact the EDI Help Desk to reactivate the Submitter (Sender) ID," NGS explains.