Medicare GME and IME Credit

December 9, 2009

To get credit for Medicare GME and IME for Medicare HMO days, the hospital must send no-pay bills to Medicare for those days. (PRRB 2009-D20).


Long Term Care Hospitals (LTCH) Clarification

December 7, 2009

Long term care Hospitals (“LTCHs”) who leased space in existing hospitals could not claim inpatient capital cost reimbursement for the first two years as ‘new’ hospitals. (PRRB Hearing 2010-D2)


New Outlier Computations for HHA in 2010

December 5, 2009

HHA Medicare payments in 2010 will have outliers computed based upon a Fixed Dollar Loss (“FDL”) of .67, compared to an FDL of .89 in 2009. The FDL is adjusted for the wage index of the HHA’s location.


OPPS Payments Increase

December 3, 2009

Medicare outpatient payments under OPPS will average a 2.1% increase in payments for 2010. Hospitals not participating in quality data reporting will receive 2% less.


HHA 2010 Medicare Payment Update

December 1, 2009

HHA 2010 Medicare payment update has a 2.0 inflation update, but 2.75% reduction for ‘unwarranted’ case mix increase, and changes in outlier payments (10% cap per agency). The Federal Register shows an increase of the base rate for 60-day episodes from $2271.92 to $2312.94 (1.8% increase).

It can be found in the Federal Register by clicking here


New CMS Caps

November 20, 2009

Updated November 9, 2009:

For CY 2010, CMS will cap home health outlier payments at 10 percent per HHA and target total aggregate outlier payments at 2.5 percent of all HH PPS payments.


Limitation on Recoupment of Overpayments

November 16, 2009

Effective November 16, 2009, CMS is prohibited from recouping Medicare overpayments from a provider or supplier that seeks reconsideration from a Qualified Independent Contractor, until the date the decision on the reconsideration has been rendered. Interest paid to a provider or supplier whose overpayment is reversed at subsequent levels of appeal will now accrue from the date of the original determination.

More information can be found here.


“Pickle Amendment”

November 12, 2009

CMS recently ammended the verification of Status for all Hospitals Qualifying for Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) Payments under 42 CFR Section 412.106(c)(2), also known as the “Pickle Amendment”

More information can be found in this transmittal.


Influenza Vaccine Payment Allowances – Annual Update for 2009-2010 Season

November 10, 2009

The flu vaccine payment allowance has been updated for the current year.  More information can be found here.


Wrong Surgical or Other Invasive Procedure Performed on a Patient; Surgical or Other Invasive Procedure Performed on the Wrong Body Part; Surgical or Other Invasive Procedure Performed on the Wrong Patient

November 5, 2009

CMS has established payment rules for medical errors.  More information can be found here.