The Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice is back and your organization should be ready to use it to comply with the NOTICE Act no later than March 8, roughly 90 days from the December 7 final approval of the form by CMS.
This week’s Medicare updates include finalization of two new payment models, the January 2017 update of the ASC Payment System, an OIG report on vulnerabilities that remain under CMS' 2-Midnight Rule, and more!
Every couple months, it seems questions arise about the 2-midnight rule and there are rumors that it may be going away. Below are some questions with answers from our expert Ronald Hirsch, MD, FACP, CHCQM, vice president of the Regulations and Education Group at Accretive Health in Chicago, to clarify where things stand today with regard to the 2-midnight rule.
Hospitals were struggling this summer to comply with the Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility (NOTICE) Act, which was signed by President Barack Obama August 6, requiring hospitals to provide a verbal and written notice of outpatient status to any patient in observation who has been in the hospital for more than 24 hours.