|
Monday, 04 January 2010 |
|
On December 23, 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued transmittal R1885CP, delaying the effective date of the requirements to report the attending physician and hospice physician certifying the terminal illness. The reporting will be optional as of January 1, 2010, and mandatory as of April 1, 2010. Please refer to FR&R’s Hospice Bulletin HOS #2009-09 that was issued on December 18, 2009 and titled “CMS Modifies Instructions for Reporting the Attending Physician and the Hospice Physician Certifying the Terminal Illness” for the full instructions. All information except for the effective date remains the same. Read full article.
|
|
|
Saturday, 21 November 2009 |
|
On October 1, 2009, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released its yearly Work Plan of initiatives for federal fiscal year 2010 which began on October 1, 2009. Areas of particular interest to Hospices are:
1) Physician Billing for Medicare Hospice Beneficiaries: The OIG will review the extent of Part B billing for physician services provided to Medicare hospice beneficiaries. They wish to ensure that services that are covered under the Medicare hospice benefit and included in the hospice payment are not being reimbursed separately by Part B. Read full article.
|
|
|
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 |
|
On August 6, 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Hospice Wage Index for fiscal year 2010 Final Rule. On August 14, 2009, CMS issued Transmittal 1796 containing the updates to the hospice base rate. The transmittal provides for a 2.1% base payment increase for the market basket increase. The CBSA for Kankakee-Bradley, Illinois, has the highest wage index and the highest rates for service dates between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010. Read full article.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monday, 24 August 2009 |
|
The hospice final rule was published in the Federal Register on August 6, 2009, and is effective for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, beginning October 1, 2009. The final rule includes reimbursement changes, new data collection requirements, and regulatory changes.
The hospice final rule includes a phase out of the Budget Neutrality Adjustment Factor (BNAF). The BNAF dates back to FY 1998 when a new methodology was introduced for calculating the hospice wage index. It used 1995 wage rate data, updated annually, and was intended to protect those agencies certified at that time. Since then, the number of hospices increased from 1,834 to 3,328 with all the new hospices also benefiting from BNAF. Hospices were originally scheduled for a 25% reduction of the BNAF in 2009, 50% in 2010, and 25% in 2011. The stimulus package cancelled the 25% reduction in 2009, but phase out was not cancelled. The final rule includes a gradual reduction of the BNAF of 10% in 2010 and 15% each year from 2011 through 2016. This is an improvement from the proposed rule which called for a 75% reduction in 2010. Read full article.
|
|
|
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 |
|
Additional data collection on hospice claims will be mandatory beginning January 1, 2010. This phase of data collection requires hospices to report additional detail for visits on their claims for all Routine Home Care (RHC), Continuous Home Care (CHC), and Respite Care billing. Hospices may begin reporting the additional data after October 1, 2009, but reporting is mandatory beginning on January 1, 2010. Read full article.
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>
|
| Results 1 - 9 of 16 |
Hospice 