Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
ER Admissions Staff Won't Have To Double As INS
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has changed its tune on a July proposal that would have required hospitals to collect additional immigration information from undocumented aliens.
The good news: Hospitals won't have to grill patients who come through your emergency room doors. But will hospitals still get their share of the $1 billion reform-bill fund as promised?
In an Oct. 1 letter to the American Hospital Association, CMS Administrator Mark McClellan said that CMS had taken note of the "public health implications" raised by numerous hospitals in the comment period. Namely, hospitals worry that requiring proof of immigration status for Medicaid coverage would deter many patients from seeking emergency treatment.
Old plan: Say goodbye to the proposed data eligibility collection instrument CMS posted last summer. New plan: Instead, hospitals can keep reform-bill funding, but eligibility methods will be "indirect, non-burdensome" and will not require providers "to obtain direct evidence of a patient's immigration status," McClellan said. "Providers will not be asked - and should not ask - about a patient's citizenship status in order to receive payment," he adds.
McClellan says CMS will release a final policy as soon as a comment review is completed.
Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
- Ambulatory:
New Changes On Tap For OPPS In '05
Observation guidelines and drugs receive federal scrutiny.
Be prepared: The Medicare Modernization Act is now in [...] - Long-Term Care:
'Under Arrangement' Clarification Could Aid SNFs
September ODF promises relief from confusion for nursing homes.
Don't look now, but the Centers for [...] - Hospitals:
ER Admissions Staff Won't Have To Double As INS
CMS finally agrees: Immigration and emergency care don't mix
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [...] - Rehab:
IRFs Can Keep In The Clear With These Strategies
Putting skill in skilled service notes is the best audit protection.
If inpatient rehab facility managers [...] - Long-Term Care:
Fix Certification Errors With These Three Easy Steps
Nursing homes don't need to repeat the same mistakes.
If long-term care providers aren't certain their [...] - Home Care:
HHAs Get Ready For Revamped Appeals Process
New 'QIC' step could bring quicker objective review.
Medicare is again tinkering with its appeals processes, [...] - Enforcement Watch:
Operation Wheeler Dealer Rolls Over Houston Doc
Providers should make sure their paperwork can stand up to increased scrutiny.
The Texas fraud indictments [...] - Hospitals:
How To Bulletproof A Hospital's Staffing Compliance
2 crucial compliance steps you can't do without.
Even if a hospital has buckled down on [...] - Program Transmittal Roundup
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in an Aug. 27 transmittal (CR 3418) [...] - Bill Watch
Bills introduced in the House: HR 5157. A bill to amend title II of the [...]
