Home Health & Hospice Week

Correction for pricey problem set for next March. Don't expect to receive correct partial episode payments (PEPs) for a while -- and the delay could cost you hundreds of dollars per claim. The claims system will be corrected for the PEP problem on March 1, 2010, intermediary Cahaba GBA says in an e-mail message to providers. "PEP claims will continue to receive incorrect payments until implementation occurs," Cahaba says on its Web site. "At that time, Cahaba will initiate mass adjustments to all claims and adjustments that were paid incorrectly." The delay in fixing payments could mean a big shortfall on PEP'd claims, notes billing expert M. Aaron Little with BKD in Springfield, Mo. For example: "I was looking at one claim yesterday that should have paid $549.45 as the PEP'd final claim amount, but the actual payment amount received was $27.82," Little tells Eli.