New Enrollment, Revalidation Fees Hit Home Care Providers
Starting March 25, you’ll have to pay a pretty penny to enroll or reenroll in Medicare — $505. “CMS and its contractors will not be able to process any applications without the proper application fee having been paid and credited to the United States Treasury,” CMS says in an e-mail to providers. “If the fee is not submitted, the application will be rejected or billing privileges revoked.”

Know When Residents Qualify for Both Hospice and Part A SNF Care
Apply this key litmus test to see if residents qualify for dual coverage.

A Medicare patient on hospice can also receive Part A SNF services, but SNFs and hospices have to take a close look at that type of scenario to avoid payment denials.

Pivotal: “The hospice benefit covers items and services related to the terminal illness and related conditions,” says attorney Marie Berliner, in Austin, Texas. Thus, whether the hospice patient qualifies for Part A SNF services depends on whether his three-day qualifying hospital stay was related or not to his terminal illness or related conditions.

3 Tips Will Get You Closer to ICD-10 Compliance
Hint: You won’t always find a simple crosswalk between ICD-9 and ICD-10.

When ICD-9 becomes ICD-10 in 2013, you will not always have a simple crosswalk relationship between old codes and the new ones. Often, you’ll have more options that may require tweaking the way you document services and a coder reports it. Check out the following examples of how ICD-10 will change your coding options when the calendar turns to Oct. 1, 2013.