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January Medicare Compliance Newsletter

Published on 

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

The words “term paper” can strike fear in the hearts of students everywhere. Research, note cards, bibliography, and the dreaded draft copy a student presents to his or her teacher for corrections prior to the final composition. That draft copy is often returned marked ubiquitously with red ink. This gives the writer one last chance at correction before a grade is assigned and the wise student utilizes this instruction to improve their paper and the resulting score. CMS likes to give providers a chance to improve their performance also. One of the tools CMS uses to guide providers in preventing billing errors is the Medicare Quarterly Provider Compliance Newsletter.

CMS publishes the Quarterly Compliance Newsletter “to provide education on how to avoid common billing errors and other erroneous activities when dealing with the Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) Program. It includes guidance to help health care professionals address and avoid the top issues of the particular Quarter.” The newsletter addresses findings from Medicare review contractors and affiliates, such as the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs), CERT, Recovery Auditors, and the OIG. The latest edition of this newsletter, the January 2016 Edition, includes several issues that may be of concern to hospitals.

Admission Source for Inpatient Psychiatric Hospitals

This issue is a concern for acute-care hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) that have an inpatient psychiatric distinct part unit. The inpatient psychiatric hospital (IPF) payment generally includes an adjustment for maintaining a qualifying emergency department (ED). Medicare does not make this adjustment however when patients are transferred from the acute-care section of a hospital to an IPF distinct part unit within the same hospital. This is because the costs associated with ED services are already reflected in the Medicare payment to the hospital for the immediately preceding acute care stay.

To prevent this inappropriate additional payment, the transfer to an IPF-distinct part unit from the acute-care section of the hospital should be coded with an admission source of “D” - Transfer from One Distinct Unit of the Hospital to another Distinct Unit of the Same Hospital Resulting in a Separate Claim to the Payer. Failure to use the correct Source of Admission code in these circumstances will result in an overpayment as has been found by Recovery Auditor’s automated reviews.

For more information, see the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 3, Section 190.6.4.

Duplicate Claims

Another automated review by Recovery Auditors has identified problems with payments for duplicate services submitted on separate claims. Claims for services should only be submitted one time. Providers should use the claim status inquiry process to determine the status of their claims instead of resubmitting the claim.

If the services are not duplicate services, the provider should use an appropriate modifier to indicate such. The use of modifiers is discussed in the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 4, Section 20.6.

Medical Necessity of Rituximab

A number of MACs have a Local Coverage Determination (LCD) or Article for Rituximab that lists appropriate ICD-10 diagnosis codes to support the medical necessity of the drug. Claims for Rituximab must include one of the required ICD-10 diagnosis codes to support payment. Most claims submitted without an acceptable diagnosis code will be denied as “not medically necessary” by claims processing edits. However, an automated review by the Recovery Auditors has identified paid claims where providers are billing for a service of J9310 - Rituximab with an ICD-10 code that is not included in the list of covered ICD-10 codes in applicable Local Coverage Determination documents. Here is a listing of the LCDs and Articles that contain diagnosis code requirements for Rituximab.

Document ID #MACJurisdiction
L34306Cahaba GBAJJ
L33746First CoastJN
L35026PalmettoJM
A52452National Government Services6 and JK
L35053Wisconsin Physician Services5 and 8

Outpatient Cardiovascular Nuclear Medicine Procedure Codes

Medical necessity issues were also identified by Recovery Auditor automated reviews related to cardiovascular nuclear medicine tests. This was the result of the same issue as for Rituximab – an ICD-10 diagnosis code approved for coverage as indicated by Local Coverage Determinations was not included on the claim. This includes a large range of services:

  • Myocardial perfusion imaging – CPT codes 78451-78454
  • Myocardial imaging – CPT codes 78466 and 78468-78469
  • Cardiac blood pool imaging – CPT codes 78472, 78473, 78481, 78483, 78494, and 78496
  • Cardiovascular stress test – CPT codes 93015-93018

Check your MAC’s LCDs and Articles to see if there are coverage requirements for these tests for your jurisdiction.

Providers need to read and take actions if needed based on the guidance in the Medicare Quarterly Compliance Newsletter. If you don’t learn from this guidance, your claims may end up covered in red marks.

Article Author: Debbie Rubio, BS MT (ASCP)
Debbie Rubio, BS MT (ASCP), was the Manager of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at Medical Management Plus, Inc. Debbie has over twenty-seven years of experience in healthcare including nine years as the Clinical Compliance Coordinator at a large multi-facility health system. In her current position, Debbie monitors, interprets and communicates current and upcoming regulatory and compliance issues as they relate to specific entities concerning Medicare and other payers.

This material was compiled to share information.  MMP, Inc. is not offering legal advice. Every reasonable effort has been taken to ensure the information is accurate and useful.