Home Health & Hospice Week
UNDERSTAND FEDS' HOSPICE NUMBER CRUNCHING TO STAY IN THE GAME
As you begin honing the cost-related numbers you'll soon report on your hospice claims, give this some careful thought: What will the powers that be do with your figures?
Here's what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and its contractors are saying so far:
Hospice providers are to submit the charges on the claim as "covered charges," even though the figures will have no direct bearing at this point on what Medicare will pay for the services.
When processed, the fiscal intermediary will move the figures from the "total charges" column to the "noncovered charges" column, since reimbursement will still be based on level of care provided, not type of service, according to Cahaba GBA.
What they say: CMS has said repeatedly that it is asking for the additional data in the interest of defining the services that hospice patients receive.
What could happen: Ultimately though, the numbers could factor into reimbursement more directly, insiders say.
'It's clear from these responses that CMS intends these changes ... to contribute to changes in the hospice payment system, with an eye toward improving accountability in the Medicare Hospice Program," says a bulletin from the Visiting Nurse Associations of America.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR PPS TRANSITION, CMS SAYS
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Durable medical equipment suppliers [...] - Hospice:
PROCEED WITH CAUTION ON COST-PER-VISIT COMPUTATION
These 3 tips can get you off to a good start.
You have until the summer [...] - Reimbursement:
UNDERSTAND FEDS' HOSPICE NUMBER CRUNCHING TO STAY IN THE GAME
Don't think the dollar amounts won't matter.
As you begin honing the cost-related numbers you'll soon [...] - Therapy:
TIGHTEN UP YOUR THERAPY DOCUMENTATION UNDER PPS REFINEMENTS
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2008 BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS GET SERIOUS
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Home health agencies and oxygen [...] - Industry Notes:
HHAs AND HOSPICES ENJOY LOW MEDICARE ERROR RATES
Suppliers reach both ends of error spectrum, CERT report shows.
Home health agencies and hospices are [...]
