Eli's Hospice Insider

Watch out: Service intensity add-on visit payments are at stake.

If you fail to report post-mortem hospice visits accurately on your claims, you may miss out on rightful reimbursement.

“Medicare is finding through the Medical Review process that hospices are not correctly reporting post-mortem visits with the modifier PM on their claims,” HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor Palmetto GBA reports. “These reporting errors will be counted as an error in the review process and may cause service intensity add-on (SIA) payments to be applied incorrectly on the claim,” the MAC cautions.

Do this: “The reporting of post-mortem visits, on the date of death, should occur regardless of the patient’s level of care or site of service,” Palmetto tells providers. But “post-mortem visits occurring on a date subsequent to the date of death are not to be reported,” the contractor instructs.

And this: “Hospices shall report hospice visits that occur before death on a separate line from those which occur after death,” the MAC directs.

Palmetto defines date of death as “the date of death reported on the death certificate,” the MAC clarifies.

More details and instructions are at https://palmettogba.com/ palmetto/jmhhh.nsf/DID/00CGUIM5BC.