Cost Report Blog

There has been an issue in recent years whether a hospital can claim Indirect Medical Education payments (“IME”) for a resident’s time involved in educational research unrelated to the hospital’s patient care.  The  Court of Appeals recently decided that CMS has the right to exclude such residents from the FTE count for IME (just like GME).

CMS has posted the 2009 update of Consolidated Billing services. For a Medicare Part A stay at a SNF, the linked website will show which services must be paid by the SNF to the provider, and the service provider may not bill Medicare directly. For Medicare Part B, this website will show which THERAPY services must be paid by the SNF to the provider, and the therapy provider may not bill Medicare directly.

For services billed to a MAC (Medicare Administrative Contractor) or to a Medicare Carrier, more information can be found here. For those billing a Fiscal Intermediary, CMS has a similar website that can be found here.