Appeal type: Home Health
Decision: Unfavorable

To make our decision we read all the papers in the file very carefully. We used the Medicare rules. We looked to see if the Plan correctly followed Medicarerules and regulations.Medicare rules say that the Plan must give the member a subscriber agreement. It is a contract between the Plan and the member. It is usually called the "Evidence of Coverage" (EOC) or "Member Agreement." We read this contract carefully to see what the Plan is supposed to cover.Medicare rulesThe rules say that plans must pay for a medical service or item if regular Medicare would pay for it in this case. You can find this rule at 42 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section 422.101.The rules say that Medicare pays for home health care services under a prospective payment system (HH PPS). Home health services under a plan of care are paid based on a 60-day episode of care. Payment for home health care episodes is usually made intwo parts. To receive the first part of the HH PPS split payment, the home health agency must submit a Request for Anticipated Payment (RAP). Specific data elements are required to submit a RAP. The home health agency must enter the claim -Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) matching key output by the Grouper software. This is known as the Treatment Authorization Code. You can find this rule, a list of the data elements, and instructions for the Treatment Authorization Code in the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 10, Section 40.1.The rules say that after a RAP has been paid and a 60-day episode has been completed or the enrollee has been discharged, the home health agency must submit a claim to receive the rest of payment due for theepisode. You can find this rule and detailed instructions for the claim in the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 10, Section 40.2.The rules say that HH claims must be submitted with TOB 0329. The HH PPS claim will include elements submitted on the RAP, and all other line item detail for the episode/period. You can find this rule in the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 10, 10.1.10.4.The rules also say that certain data elements are required. Any claim with incomplete, missing, or invalid information for all of these elements may be returned as unprocessable. You can find this rule in the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 1, Section 80.3.1.If you want to read these Medicare rules, you can go to this website www.medicareappeal.com.The Plan contract says that the Plan covers items and services in accordance with Medicare rules.  Explanation of decisionWe decided that the Plan does not have to pay forthe home health services provided to the enrollee from July 1, 2019 to July 29, 2019.You asked the Plan to pay forhome health services. You say that you would like the Plan to reconsider their denial of payment.The Plan denied your request. The Plan says the services were not billed correctly.The Plan must follow Medicare rules. The rules say that certain data elements on the RAP and the claim must be completed for home health care services to be covered.We looked at the claim submitted, the file and the Medicare rules. Based on this information, we decided that Medicare rules for completing the claim for home health services have not been met. Specifically, this claim 
has been submitted with an invalid type of bill code.Therefore, we decided that the Plan does not have to pay forthe home health services provided to the enrollee from July 1, 2019 to July 29, 2019