Wachler & Associates Health Law BlogMACs Resuming Post-Payment Review
Medicare Administrative Contractor (“MAC”) CGS announced that beginning in October 2020, it would conduct post-payment reviews of hospice general inpatient (GIP) claims. Specifically, the reviews will be conducted if the claims were for 7 or more days of service, utilized revenue code 0656, and were submitted before March 1, 2020. These claims are particularly being targeted by CGS because GIP claims encompass a level of care intended for short term interventions, wherein symptoms can be controlled within 48 to 72 hours from the GIP setting. As such, if the claims were for 7 days or longer, CGS will flag the claim for review.
Common reasons for a denial following a hospice post payment review include: (1) Documentation does not indicate the patient had a terminal prognosis of 6 months or less; (2) Basic patient information is missing from the Notice of Election; (3) The physician narrative statement is not a true clinical narrative; (4) Failure to meet Face-to-Face requirements; and (5) The documentation did not support that the GIP level of care was reasonable or necessary.
An uptick in post-payment reviews leading to full-blown audits is to be expected for all provider types. As of August 3, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced that its suspension of Medicare claim audits would be lifted. Due to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (“COVID-19”), CMS had suspended most audits on March 30, specifically pre- and post-payment reviews conducted by MACs. As such, providers should be vigilant about following their compliance plans. Not only are Medicare audits resuming, but private payors have also resumed audits. Specifically, laboratories are expected to see a large amount of private payor audits surrounding COVID-19 testing.
Once a provider has been audited and would like to contest a Medicare audit, the provider must engage in the Medicare appeals process. This is a five-step process of: (1) Redetermination; (2) Reconsideration; (3) An Administrative Law Judge hearing; (4) Medicare Appeals Council review; and (5) Judicial review in a District Court. Private payors set their own appeals process and they often vary from payor to payor. Although providers are not required to retain an attorney to appeal their claims, the appeals process for both Medicare and private payors can be extremely confusing and burdensome—there are also numerous legal and procedural arguments that can be argued by an experienced healthcare attorney.
For over 35 years, Wachler & Associates has represented healthcare providers and suppliers nationwide in a variety of health law matters, and our attorneys can assist providers and suppliers in understanding new developments in audits. Please contact Wachler & Associates if your facility has recently gotten notice of an audit, or if your facility would like to implement a compliance plan. If you or your healthcare entity has any questions pertaining to healthcare compliance, please contact an experienced healthcare attorney at 248-544-0888 or wapc@wachler.com.