During several recent Medicare Boot Camp—Hospital Version® classes, I noticed some confusion about the four parts of Medicare. With respect to each part, there appeared to be confusion about the authority or entity responsible for determining the scope of covered services, beneficiary cost sharing, adjudication of claims, and payment for covered services. Based upon this apparent need for clarification, this is the first of three notes that will focus on the four parts of Medicare: Medicare Part A, Medicare Part B, Medicare Part C, and Medicare Part D.
While implementation of the long awaited and long overdue ICD-10 coding system is just around the corner, some questions still remain regarding “split billing” based on the October 1, 2015, date of service. Lately, I have been asked questions by billing staff from both PPS and critical access hospitals (CAH) so this may be a good time to clarify how and when to split bill.
