(Medicare Claims Processing Manual)

Medicare Claims Processing Manual  Chapter 11 - Processing Hospice Claims   Table of Contents  (Rev. 12083, 06-15-23)  Transmittals for Chapter 11   10 - Overview  10.1 - Hospice Pre -Election Evaluation and Counseling Services  20 - Hospice Notice of Election  20.1 - Procedures for Hospice Election  and Related Transactions  20.1.1 - Notice of Election (NOE)  20.1.2 - Notice of Termination/Revocation (NOTR)  20.1.3 -  Change of Provider/Transfer Notice 20.1.4  Cancellation of an Election  20.1.5  Change of Ownership Notice  20.1.6  Hospice Election Periods and Benefit Periods in Medicare Systems  30 - Billing and Payment for General Hospice Services  30.1 - Levels of Care Data Required on the Intuitional Claim to A/B MAC (HHH)  30.2 - Payment Rates  30.2.1 - Payments to Hospice Agencies That Do Not Submit Required Quality Data  30.2.2  Service Intensity Add-on (SIA) Payments  30.3 - Data Required on the Institutional Claim to A/B MAC (HHH)  30.4 - Claims From Medicare Advantage Organizations  30.5  Hospice Claims for Vaccine Services  40 - Billing and Payment for Hospice Services Provided by a Physician 40.1 - Types of Physician Services  40.1.1 - Administrative Activities  40.1.2 - Hospice Attending Physician Services  40.1.3 - Independent Attending Physician Services  40.1.3.1 - Care Plan Oversight  40.2 - Processing Professional Claims for Hospice Beneficiaries  40.2.1 -  Claims After the End of Hospice Election Period  50 - Billing and Payment for Services Unrelated to Terminal Illness  60 - Billing and Payment for Services Provided by Hospices Under Contractual Arrangements With Other Institutions  60.1 -  Instructions for the Contractual Arrangement  60.2 -  Clarification of the Payment for Contracted Services  70 - Deductible and Coinsurance for Hospice Benefit  70.1 -  General  70.2 -  Coinsurance on Outpatient Drugs and Biologicals  70.3 -  Coinsurance on Inpatient Respite Care  80 - Caps and Limitations on Hospice Payments  90 - Frequency of Billing and Same Day Billing  100 -  Billing for Hospice Denials  100.1 -  Billing for Denial of Room and Board Charges  100.2 -  Demand Billing for Hospice General Inpatient Care  120 -  Contractor Responsibilities for Publishing Hospice Information 130 HOSPICE Pricer Program  130.1 Input/Output Record Layout  130.2 Decision Logic Used by the Pricer on Claims        10  Overview  (Rev. 4280, Issued: 04 -19-2019, Effective: 07 -21-19, Implementation: 07- 21-19)  Medicare beneficiaries entitled to hospital insurance (Part A) who have terminal illnesses and a life expectancy of six months or less have the option of electing hospice benefits in lieu of standard Medicare coverage for treatment and management of their terminal condition.  Only care provided by a Medicare certified hospice is covered under the hospice benefit provisions.  Hospice care is available for two 90 -day periods and an unlimited number of 60- day periods during the remainder of the hospice patients lifetime. However, a  beneficiary  may voluntarily terminate  his hospice  election  period. Election/termination  dates  are retained  on CWF.   When hospice coverage is elected, the beneficiary waives all rights to Medicare Part B payments for services that are related to the treatment and management of his/her terminal illness during any period his/her hospice benefit election is in force, except  for professional services of an attending physician, which may include a nurse practitioner or physician assistant.  If the attending physician, is an employee of the designated hospice, he or she may not receive compensation from the hospice for those se rvices under Part B.  These physician professional services are billed to Medicare Part A by the hospice.  To be covered, hospice services must be reasonable and necessary for the palliation or management of the terminal illness and related conditions. The individual must elect hospice care and a certification that the individual is terminally ill must be completed by the patients attending physician (if there is one), and the Medical Director (or the physician member of the Interdisciplinary Group (IDG)).  Nurse practitioners or physician assistants serving as the attending physician may not certify or re -certify the terminal illness. A plan of care must be established before services are provided. To be covered, services must be consistent with the plan of care.  C ertification of terminal illness is based on the physicians or medical directors clinical judgment regarding the normal course of an individuals illness. It should be noted that predicting life expectancy is not always exact.   See the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, Chapter 9, for additional general information about the Hospice benefit.  See Chapter 29 of this manual for information on the appeals process that should be followed when an entity is dissatisfied with the determination made on a claim.   See Chapter 9 of the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual for hospice eligibility requirements and election of hospice care.   10.1 - Hospice Pre -Election Evaluation and Counseling Services (Rev. 3577, Issued: 08- 05-16; Effective: 01- 01-17; Implementation: 01 -03-17)  Effective January 1, 2005, Medicare allows payment to a hospice for specified hospice pre-election evaluation and counseling services when furnished by a physician who is either the medical director of or employee of the hospice.  Medicare covers a one- time only  payment on behalf of a beneficiary who is terminally ill, (defined as having a prognosis of 6 months or less if the disease follows its normal course), has no previous hospice elections, and has not previously received hospice pre-election evaluation and counseling services.  HCPCS code G0337 Hospice Pre-Election Evaluation and Counseling Services is used to designate that these services have been provided by the medical director or a physician employed by the hospice.  Hospice agencies bill their A/B MAC (HHH) with home health and hospice jurisdiction directly using HCPCS G0337 with Revenue Code 0657. No other revenue codes may appear on the claim.  Claims for Hospice Pre -Election and Counseling Services, HCPCS code G0337, are not subject to the editing usually required on hospice claims to match the claim to an established hospice period.  Further, A/B MACs (HHH) do not apply payments for hospice pre -election evaluation and counseling consultation services to the overall hospice cap amount.  Medicare must ensure that this counseling service occurs only one time per beneficiary by imposing safeguards to detect and prevent duplicate billing for similar services.  If new patient physician services (HCPCS codes 99201-99205) are submitted by a A/ B MAC (HHH) to CWF for payment authorization but HCPCS code G0337 (Hospice Pre-Election Evaluation and Counseling Services) has already been approved for a hospice claim for the same beneficiary, for the same date of service, by the same physician, the physician service will be rejected by CWF and the service shall be denied as a duplicate.    The contractor shall use the following remittance advice messages and associated codes when rejecting/denying claims under this policy.  This CARC/RARC combination is compliant with CAQH CORE Business Scenario Four.  Group Code: CO CARC: 97  RARC: M86  MSN: 16.45  Likewise, if a new patient claim for HCPCS codes 99201 -99205 has been approved and subsequently, a hospice claim is submitted to CWF for payment authorization for HCPCS code G0337, (for same beneficiary, same date of service, same physician), CWF shall r eject the claim and the contractor shall deny the bill and use the messages above.   HCPCS code G0337 is only payable when billed on a hospice claim.  Contractors shall not make payment for HCPCS code G0337 on professional claims.  Contractors shall deny line items on professional claims for HCPCS code G0337.   The contractor shall use the following remittance advice messages and associated codes when rejecting/denying claims under this policy.  This CARC/RARC combination is compliant with CAQH CORE Business Scenario Three.   Group Code: CO  CARC: 109  RARC: N/A  MSN: 17.9  20 - Hospice Notice of Election  (Rev. 1, 10- 01-03) HSP-201  20.1 - Procedures for Hospice Election  and Related Transactions  (Rev.  3866, Issued: 09- 26-17, Effective: 01- 01-18, Implementation: 01- 02-18)  See Chapter 9 of the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual for hospice eligibility requirements and election of hospice care.   20.1.1 - Notice of Election (NOE)  (Rev. 12083; Issued: 06- 15-23; Effective: 05 -15-23; Implementation: 07- 17-23)  When a Medicare beneficiary elects hospice services, hospices must complete the data elements identified below for the Uniform (Institutional Provider) Bill (Form CMS -1450) or its electronic equivalent, which is a Notice of Election (NOE).   Timely -filed hospice NOEs shall be filed within 5 calendar days after the hospice admission date. A timely -filed NOE is a NOE that is submitted to the A/B MAC (HHH) and accepted by the A/B MAC (HHH) within 5 calendar days after the hospice admission date. While a timely -filed NOE is one that is submitted to and accepted by the Medicare contractor A/B MAC (HHH) within 5 calendar days after the hospice election, posting to the CWF may not occur within that same time frame. The date of posting to the CWF is not a reflection of whether the NOE is considered timely -filed. In instances where a NOE is not timely -filed, Medicare shall not cover and pay for the days of hospice care from the hospice admission date to the date the NOE is submitted to, and accepted by, the A/B MAC (HHH). These days shall be a provider liability, and the provider shall not bill the beneficiary for them. The hospice shall report these non- covered days on the claim with an occurrence span code 77, and charges for all claim lines reporting t hese days shall be reported as non- covered, or the claim will be returned to the provider.   If a hospice fails to file a timely -filed NOE, it may request an exception which, if approved, waives the consequences of filing a NOE late. The four circumstances that may qualify the hospice for an exception to the consequences of filing the NOE more than 5 calendar days after the hospice admission date are as follows:   1. fires, floods, earthquakes, or other unusual events that inflict extensive damage to the hospices ability to operate;   2. an event that produces a data filing problem due to a CMS or A/B MAC (HHH) systems issue that is beyond the control of the hospice;   3. a newly Medicare -certified hospice that is notified of that certification after the Medicare certification date, or which is awaiting its user ID from its A/B MAC (HHH); or,   4. other circumstances determined by the A/B MAC (HHH) or CMS to be beyond the control of the hospice.  If one of the four circumstances described above prevents a hospice from filing a timely-  filed NOE, the hospice may request an exception which, if approved, would waive the consequences of filing the NOE late.   When an NOE is submitted within the five day timely filing period, but the NOE contains inadvertent errors (such as a beneficiary identifier that has recently changed), the error does not trigger the NOE to be immediately returned to the hospice for correc tion. In these instances, the hospice must wait until the incorrect information is fully processed by Medicare systems before the NOE is returned to the hospice for correction.  There are other NOE errors, such as an incorrect admission date, that will not be returned for correction and instead must be finalized and posted by the Medicare systems before the hospice can correct the NOE. Only the hospice is aware of the error. Such delays in Medicare systems could cause the NOE to be late.   Delays due to Medicare system constraints are outside the control of the hospice and may qualify for an exception to the timely filing requirement.  Hospices can reduce the number of errors and exception requests related changes to the beneficiary identifier by performing an eligibility check immediately before admission.  This can confirm that the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) is active and ac curate since the eligibility inquiry system contains an MBI End Date field.    If there is a date in that field, the MBI is not valid after that date.  The hospice can contact the beneficiary or use the MBI Lookup tool to determine the current MBI to use on the NOE.