CMS Announces Special Open Door Forum for Part A to Part B Rebilling Demonstration Program

On Friday, November 18, CMS released a Q&A about the Part A to Part B Rebilling Demonstration Program. Although the Q&A does not answer many of the questions that arose from the Fact Sheet released on November 15, it does give insight into when those answers could be provided. CMS will hold two special Open Door Forums, one on November 30, 2011 and another on December 8, 2011. Both will be conducted at 2pm EST.

In addition, the Q&A announced that enrollment for the Demonstration Program will begin on December 12, 2011 at 2pm EST and some hospital facilities will be ineligible to participate in the program. For instance, facilities that receive periodic interim payments from CMS and do not participate in Medicare, will not be able to participate. In addition, psychiatric hospitals paid under the Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities, Long-Term Care Hospitals, cancer hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, and children’s hospitals all are ineligible to participate.

Finally, the Q&A provided an email for additional questions regarding the Demonstration Program to be sent to CMS. This email is ABRebillingDemo@cms.hhs.gov.

Wachler & Associates will continue to monitor the developments of the Demonstration Program. Please contact a Wachler & Associates attorney if you have any questions regarding the Demonstration Program, including participation in the enrollment process or questions regarding the RAC appeals process.