Home Health & Hospice Week

• Avoid this common mistake with hospice Notice of Election (NOE) statements, or risk your reimbursement.

Valid hospice NOEs must contain five elements, RHHI Palmetto GBA says in a new article about hospice technical denials: identification of the provider; an understanding of the nature of hospice care; waiver of certain Medicare benefits; effective date of election; and beneficiary (or rep) signature.

A common problem Palmetto finds on NOEs is that "the particular name of the individual hospice providing care is not identified," the intermediary cautions. "If the hospice belongs to a corporation or some other entity that has a different name, ensure the name of the particular hospice providing care is on the signed statement."

Another pitfall: Medicare doesn't allow a verbal hospice election statement, Cahaba stresses in an article about NOEs in this month's provider newsletter.

"The Medical Review department has found there are providers who write in 'Verbal ok' for election, and this is not acceptable," Cahaba says. "For Medicare to pay for hospice services there must be a valid, signed election form."

For a free copy of the Palmetto article that reviews NOE and physician signature requirements for hospice claims, e-mail editor Rebecca Johnson at rebeccaj@eliresearch.com with "hospice technical denials" in the subject line. The Cahaba article is on-line at http://www.cahabagba.com/rhhi/news/newsletter/201009_rhhi.pdf.