Q: I have a question about navigating the skilled nursing facility (SNF) benefit for Medicare. My understanding is that you can only use a Hospital-Issued Notices of Noncoverage (HINN) for inpatient, so you could use if less than a three-day stay. We have been giving Advance Beneficiary Notices (ABN) for our traditional Medicare patients that are observation when families are not timely on getting a SNF secured to those patients that require it. Is this correct?
Q: We provide tobacco cessation services and have been reporting these with time-based HCPCS codes. There are also CPT® codes for these services. Which is the appropriate set of codes to use for Medicare?
This week’s Medicare updates include the October 2016 Integrated Outpatient Code Editor specifications version 17.3; the Medicare Fee for Service (FFS) Recovery Audit program third quarter summary newsletter; and more!
CMS’ introduction of CMS-1455-R in March 2013 allowed hospitals to ignore the one-year timely filing deadline and rebill admissions that were denied by an auditor, even many years after the date of service. Fast forward to October 29, 2015, when the OIG released a policy stating that hospitals may waive the cost of self-administered medications to Medicare beneficiaries without concern about inducement or kickback accusations if the hospital develops a policy and applies it uniformly.
CMS’ proposed changes to implement Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 and reshape payments for off-campus, provider-based departments represent the most significant changes in the current year 2017 OPPS proposed rule.
