Eli's Hospice Insider

Don't overlook this item that can torpedo your payment.

Don't believe everything you hear when it comes to face-to-face encounter requirements for hospice patients, even if it comes from your Medicare contractor.

In a Palmetto GBA workshop, "a Palmetto representative stated that a new election statement is not needed if a hospice does not do a face-to-face timely," one hospice said in the HHH MAC's July Ask the Contractor Teleconference. "If CMS said it is a discharge, then my understanding would be that a new election statement would be needed. Can you clarify that? If the patient is discharged, they do need a new election statement, correct?"

That is correct, Palmetto replies in the Jurisdiction 11 ACT Q&As. "The patient must be discharged and re-elect hospice with a new election statement if the face to-face was not completed timely," Palmetto says.

For a link to the lengthy Q&As from the ACT, e-mail editor Rebecca Johnson at rebeccaj@eliresearch.com with "Palmetto July ACT" in the subject line.