Home Health & Hospice Week
Agencies In 100 Counties Lost Rural Add-On As Of Jan. 1
MAC reminds agencies to use updated CBSA codes.
Are you using the up-to-date CBSA code on your claims for episodes ending Jan. 1 or later? If not, you’ll see those claims returned.
About 45 percent of counties saw a CBSA code change this year, notes HHH Medicare Admini-strative Contractor Palmetto GBA on its website. “To be paid properly, HHAs must incorporate these CBSA changes into the billing of episodes ending in 2015,” the MAC says.
You need to determine the CBSA for each county in which you provide care, Palmetto instructs. “This CBSA code corresponding to the state and county of the beneficiary’s place of residence must be reported in value code 61 on both Requests for Anticipated Payments (RAPs) and final claims.”
Many counties have a transition wage index this year. You can tell because the CBSA number series is 50xxx, Palmetto explains. “This is a 50/50 blend of the old wage index and the new wage index” the MAC adds.
More than 100 counties will lose the 3 percent rural add-on thanks to these wage index changes in 2015, noted the National Association for Home Care & Hospice when CMS issued the HH PPS final rule in the fall (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXIII, No. 39).
Note: For a link to Palmetto’s wage index Excel file, where you can look up your code, email editor Rebecca Johnson at rebeccaj@eliresearch. com with “Palmetto CBSA” in the subject line.
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