As hospitals get ready to start notifying patients about their status under the requirements of the NOTICE Act using the MOON form, many still have questions about the process and the form itself. The NOTICE Act requires hospitals to provide a verbal and written notice (using the MOON form) of outpatient status to any patient who has been in observation for more than 24 hours. The hospital must provide notice to the patient within 36 hours of the start of the service, or at the time of discharge or inpatient admission. “The notice must be provided no later than 36 hours after observation services are initiated or, if sooner, upon release,” according to CMS.
A recent JAMA study analyzed the proportion and cost of 30-day readmissions and found that sepsis accounts for a higher rate of unplanned readmissions than acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, pneumonia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). CMS uses 30-day readmission rates as a measure of quality of care and pays particular attention to AMI, heart failure, pneumonia, and COPD readmissions because they are frequent and costly.
HIPAA privacy and security professionals work hard to create commonsense policies and procedures and lobby for the best technical safeguards for their organizations. But time and again that hard work is wiped out by the most persistent threat of all: insider threat.
This week’s Medicare updates include Advance Care Planning implementation for OPPS claims, revision to State Operations Manual Appendix PP - incorporating revised Requirements of Participation for Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing facilities, and more!