Home Health & Hospice Week

CMS punts on docs' NPI info again in latest forum.

The conversion to Medicare Administrative Contractors is rolling ahead, with home health as its next target.

Home health agencies, hospices and durable medical equipment suppliers will share the same four jurisdictions for claims processing, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official noted in the March 14 home health Open Door Forum that drew 466 listeners. CMS already has awarded the DME MAC contracts, but plans to solicit bids for the Home Health MACs in its next bidding cycle.

CMS will complete the transition to the new MAC system by 2011, the agency notes.

Resources: More information on the new MACs is on CMS’ Web site at www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareContractingReform. A list of new jurisdictions is at www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareContractingReform/06_SpecialtyMACJurisdictions.asp.

Other issues discussed in the forum include:

• NPIs. Despite urgent industry need for a physician NPI directory, CMS said it had no information on one. This leaves agencies burdened with the task of collecting the new NPIs from docs themselves (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XVI, No. 10).

However, CMS has urged physicians to share their NPIs with other providers who need it for billing and patient treatment.

• Pressure ulcers. CMS is looking at the revised 2007 descriptions of pressure ulcers the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel recently released (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XVI, No. 9). Agencies are asking for guidance about how to use these descriptions along with CMS’ other instructions, a caller said in the forum. The NPUAP revisions are “under review,” a CMS official responded.

• Patient surveys. CMS will soon test its Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys on home health patients, an agency official said. CMS and partner Agency for Health Research and Quality are looking for volunteers to test the survey.

• PPS refinements. The long-awaited proposed rule on PPS refinements will be out very soon, CMS said.

The PPS rule may include changes to the 10-visit therapy threshold, reduced payment for subsequent care episodes, changes to case mix diagnosis codes, revised payment for supplies and changes to payment adjustments (LUPAs, SCICs and PEPs), predicts consultant Mark Sharp with BKD in Springfield, MO.