Long Term Care

In a notice dated June 30, 2010, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) stated that the one-time payment of $250 that the U.S. Department of Treasury will be distributing to certain Medicare Part D beneficiaries will not be exempt income.  HFS has now retracted that statement and issued clarifying guidance. Read full article.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released a report to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) summarizing the errors found by the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program for 2009.  Of the claims reviewed by CERT that were found to have errors, 6% were from claims submitted by Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs). Read full article.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has revised the billing instructions for facilities submitting claims to Medicare via the electronic Form 837I or UB-04, including Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs).  Read full article.

On Thursday, July 22, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a Notice with Comment Period in the Federal Register.  This notice includes the SNF rates for fiscal year 2011, which begins on October 1, 2010.  Because the majority of changes for the next fiscal year were originally published last year in the SNF Proposed Rule, with comment period, and included in the SNF final rule for fiscal year 2010, a formal rule was not required to be issued this year. Read full article.