COVID-19: Medicare fee-for-service billing updates

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• COVID-19 Medicare fee-for-service billing updates

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Medical Billing Services in Florida
Recently, Centers for Medicare Medicaid
Services (CMS) upgraded a list of frequently
asked questions on Medicare fee-for-service
billing during the COVID-19 crisis. A number of
questions focused on Hospital Inpatient
Prospective Payment System (IPPS) payments made
under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security (CARES) Act. This act signed at the end
of March 2020, as part of the CARES Act billions
of dollars have been allotted in relief to
hospitals and healthcare providers. In addition
to this, the act has given a temporary 20 hike
in hospital IPPS compensations specifically for
COVID 19 care during the pandemic crisis. The
upgraded FAQs simplified how CMS has incorporated
the hospital IPPS compensation hike, along with
how CMS will find out COVID-19 discharges and in
case of hospitals require to offer particular
code to receive greater reimbursement. In
updated FAQs, CMS said that the CARES Act allowed
the HHS Secretary to escalate the IPPS weighting
factor for the allocated diagnostic-related group
(DRG) for an independent diagnosed with COVID-19
discharged in the timeline of the public health
emergency period. An upgraded FAQ said, the
federal agency to find out who these independent
depends on the ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes B97.29
and U07.1. Implementation of the temporary
payment hike In order to implement the temporary
payment hike, CMS wont develop new Medicare
Severity-Diagnosis Related Group (MS-DRG)
weights.
Medical Billing Services in Oregon
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Medical Billing Services in Florida
Instead of these weights, the CMS will utilize
the IPPS Pricer to apply an adjustment factor to
enhance the MS-DRG relative weight, which would
alternatively apply by 20 percent when finding
IPPS operating payments. Such kind of payments
comprises low-volume hospitals, indirect medical
education, calculation of reimbursements for
disproportionate share hospitals, and outliers,
as well as Medicare-dependent hospitals and
hospital-specific rates for sole community
hospitals. How much reimbursement will hospitals
receive? How much hospitals will receive payments
for COVID-19 hospitalizations will be based on
the discharge date. CMS has given two new FAQs
about the new payment rates for COVID-19
discharges taken place on or after January 27,
2020, and on or before March 31, 2020, as well as
on or after April 1, 2020, through the duration
of the COVID-19 public health emergency
period. In addition to the above updates, CMS
also stated that Hospitals would not require
utilizing the DR condition code on claims to
Medicare fee-for-service to get an escalated IPPS
rate. Furthermore, the agency explained that
Medicare Administrative Contractors would also
initiate reprocessing of claims for COVID-19
hospitalizations submitted before to the passage
of the CARES Act. Apart from this, other FAQs
inscribed in 27th May 2020 updates contain
explanations on distinctive waivers and
exceptions, which only apply to hospitals
reimbursed under TEFRA.
Medical Billing Services in Oregon
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Medical Billing Services in Florida
Billing services for patients relocated to
temporary acute care locations have to be
functioned by public individuals during the
COVID-19 crisis. Apart from COVID-19 billing
updates for the IPPS, CMS published guidance on
how hospitals can bill for services performed at
different care sits generated to enhance their
capacity during the COVID-19 crisis. Creation of
Care Sites The permission has been given by CMS
to the state and local governments, hospitals,
and other organizations to develop different care
sites, which means any building or structure can
be used for healthcare. Some hospitals have
utilized the flexibility of substitute care site
to transform it into tents, cafeterias, other
creative non-clinical spaces, and convention
centers as well as retrofitted gymnasiums and
other non-clinical locations for healthcare
purpose. We are professional medical billing and
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billing updates. For more details contact us to
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