OIG Alert: Medicare Services during Hospice Election
CMS’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) is looking at patients who receive hospice and also receive other Medicare services. The OIG announced as part of the continuing work to ensure …
Insights and News
Humana as a Hospice Provider
Humana has been on an aggressive streak lately to acquire some of the largest hospice providers in the nation on top of acquiring a home health chain. But why? It’s …
Maximize Reimbursement: Train Intake Staff
Did you know that maximizing reimbursement begins with the very first contact with your agency either from a patient or an Insurer? Each phone call, fax or electronic transmission must …
Legislative Update: Palliative Care & Hospice Education Act (PCHETA)
West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito and Wisconsin Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced legislation that will allow more patient centered models of care for the treatment of terminally ill …
Employees Should Update W-4s
On February 27, 2018, the IRS finally released the updated W-4 for 2018 with many notable changes from previous versions of the form. Most noticeably, the exemption calculation has been …
Non-Compliance Letters on the Way
Hospices who have failed to adhere to Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) will be receiving letters via the CASPER/QIES system starting July 9th. If you receive such a letter, your …
Hospice Business: What We Hear
Hospice providers are continuing to play a critical role at the end stages of a patient’s life. More and more families are aware of this and push relatives to make …
Hospice Election Period Changes
This month is bringing some significant changes to the way hospice providers handle election periods. Effective July 2, 2018, the Common Working File (CWF also known as FISS DDE) has …
Medicare Beneficiary Numbers – New Medicare Numbers and IDs
Medicare numbers are now in the process of being replaced. Member’s current HICN will be replaced with an alphanumeric combination called the Medicare Beneficiary Number (MBI). MBIs will be randomly …
Publicly Traded Spotlight: Amedisys & Private Duty
Amedisys has been doing something that started a couple years ago and caught many by surprise. Their acquisition of private duty home care providers seems to be gaining steam. Starting …