Progressive Provider Services are pleased to announce that we will soon be introducing two new Webinars to our line of live trainings. We will be adding Medicare Cost Reports for RHC / FQHC and Medicare Cost Reports for Home Offices. Look for these in the next few months or email seminars@ppsassistant.com to be notified about their debuts.
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Posted by rvaks
The season for Medicare Cost Report preparations is quickly sneaking upon us and now is the time to ask yourself if perhaps you could use a little more training in preparing Cost Reports. Our unique Medicare Cost Report training Webinars offer a multi-faceted approach to not only understanding the Cost Report process, but also gives participants the instruction and confidence to prepare and file their Cost Reports.
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Posted by rvaks
We are pleased to announce that Progressive Provider Services now offers Medicare Cost Report software specific for our low utilization clients. In addition to being more economical, this software package contains only the worksheets that are required for low utilization providers. As with all of our products, we stand behind our software 100% and offer full support.
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Posted by rvaks
At Progressive Provider Services we provide easy to use Medicare cost report software that is based in Microsoft Excel. Because our Medicare cost report software is based in Excel there is a minimal learning curve. It is also transportable as the software is not bound to any specific computer and can even be emailed. We have incorporated many time saving features like trial balance uploading which directly uploads your Trial Balance into the appropriate worksheets. The TB uploading is particularly helpful as it negates the need to calculate the amounts in each worksheet as it all flows. It also enables a faster review and facilitates quicker changes to the report. We also have an Electronic Cost Report uploading feature which enables the user to upload prior year stats or view prior year cost reports. Lastly, we have a dedicated support staff that is available to answer questions from software usage to filing techniques to reduce the chance of rejection by your Fiscal Intermediary.
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Posted by rvaks
From time to time here at Progressive Provider Services we are asked about how our Medicare cost report software differs from the free software that is offered through Mutual of Omaha.
With the free software, the preparer is required to first complete the Medicare cost report manually which is very time consuming and cumbersome without the aid of cost report software. The purpose of the free software is to enable the creation of an electronic cost report (ECR) by manually inputting the information into the ‘free’ ECR software. The free ECR software will not print out a Medicare cost report, as it only captures certain information electronically for your intermediary and CMS.
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Posted by rvaks
Per CMS Transmittal 1981, the new Inpatient Psych PPS rates for discharges of 7/1/10 through 6/30/01 will be computed as follows:
• The Federal per diem base rate is $665.71. (This gets adjusted by DRG group , age and for which day in the inpatient stay)
• The fixed dollar loss threshold amount (for outliers) is $6,372.00.
• The labor-related share is 75.400 percent (i.e. 75.4% of the per diem rate is adjusted by the hospital’s wage index)
• The ECT rate is $286.60 (add-on for ECT shock treatment)
As before, the Medicare Cost Report of the hospital will impact the outlier calculation.
Link to the above summary can be found here.
The Federal Register for the wage indices, adjustment factors for diagnosis, age, and day of inpatient stay begins at page 23106.
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Posted by rvaks
CMS has announced that the Medicare Fee Schedule for physician services has been updated to apply a 2.2% increase for dates of service June 1, 2010 through November 30, 2010, rescinding the negative 21% fee schedule that was in place. (CMS Newsroom — June 25, 2010)
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Posted by rvaks
How does Medicare cost reporting impact us?
1 The federal government looks at cost reports to estimate profits and losses of hospitals , SNFs, Home Health Agencies, etc.
2. Providers can claim reimbursement for Medicare bad debt on their Medicare cost report for uncollectible copays and deductibles.
3. Outlier payments for expensive cases are based upon your facility-specific cost report. This would be true for both a Medicaid hospital and home health agency.
4. States base their Medicaid reimbursement upon the Medicaid cost report, but often the Medicaid auditors look to the Medicare cost report to determine how to treat certain costs or allocations found on the Medicaid report. Sometimes this Medicaid information is recorded on the Medicare cost report itself instead of a separate cost report just for Medicaid.
5. There are still elements of cost reimbursement for different health care providers. In the case of a SNF, there is still cost reimbursement of the fees of a physician who attends a Utilization Review committee, to the extent that his review relates to Medicare patients. In the case of a hospital, there is still cost reimbursement for costs related to a Nursing School or a Paramedic Education program.
6. Hospitals that receive special State subsidies for treating charity care and indigent patients are subject to a cap (known as DSH cap). The cap limits subsidies reimbursement for uncompensated costs of care of the Medicaid and other indigent patients based upon the Medicare cost report. This cap is calculated using perdiem costs and cost-to-charge ratios taken from the Medicare cost report.
7. Payment rates for hospitals and SNFs are adjusted for different locations per that location’s wage index. The wage index is based currently on hospital cost reports.
8. There are still some entities that receive cost reimbursement for all the care, such as Critical Access Hospitals.
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Posted by rvaks
INDIRECT MEDICAL EDUCATION (IME) PAYMENTS are payments for extra costs of additional diagnostics, etc. by using residents and interns in a teaching hospital, who are less experienced than doctors. The IME payment is calculated in teh Medicare cost report of the hospital. A CMS summary of this can be found here.
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Posted by rvaks
GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION (GME) PAYMENTS are payments for training residents and interns in a teaching hospital. The GME payment is calculated in the Medicare cost report of the hospital. A CMS summary of this can be found here.
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Posted by rvaks
