LIVANTA is the New National Medicare Claim Review Contractor for Short Stay and Higher-Weighted DRG Reviews
Published on
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
As a child of the 70’s in the south, the television line up at my house on Saturday night, when we were not at some type of ball game, was Looney Tunes, Hee Haw, Love Boat and Fantasy Island. That said, let us focus on Hee Haw’s Gossip Girls and their song that hopefully won’t get stuck on a loop in your head:
“Now, we’re not ones to go ‘round spreadin’ rumors,
Why, really we’re just not the gossipy kind,
No, you’ll never hear of us repeating gossip,
So you’d better be sure and listen close the first time!”
Recently, I have read that Livanta, one of the current Beneficiary and Family Centered Care – Quality Improvement Organizations (BFCC-QIS), was going to be the new Medicare contractor responsible for Short Stay Reviews (SSRs) and higher-weighed-DRG (HWDRG) reviews nationwide. As background information, in May 2019, BFCC-QIO short stay reviews were put on hold as CMS planned to procure a new BFCC-QIO contractor who would perform SSRs and HWDRG reviews on a national basis. CMS anticipated awarding this contract by the 3rd quarter of calendar year 2019. As of last week, I had been unable to find an award notice from CMS and unlike the Gossip Girls, I have been waiting to find confirmation from CMS or Livanta before sharing information in our newsletter.
This past Friday April 9th, I found that Livanta has provided confirmation on their website, with the following bolded notice:
Attention Providers: Livanta was awarded the contract for performing claim reviews for Short Stay and Higher-Weight Diagnosis Related Group (HWDRG) claims in all U.S. states and territories.
Under the announcement there is a link to a new Livanta National Medicare Claim Review Contractor
Webpage. Important information available to Providers on this webpage includes:
- Frequently asked questions such as information about HWDRG and Short Stay Reviews (SSRs).
- Information about a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that acute care inpatient hospitals, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, and long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals are required to submit to Livanta. Note, the MOA template is available as a download on this page.
- Information about medical record reimbursement and the process for submitting medical records to Livanta.
As to the timing of when these reviews will begin, Livanta offers the following information:
“In the coming weeks, Livanta will begin conducting this work in all states, territories, and Washington, D.C. As part of the review activities, Livanta’s reviewers will evaluate whether the services performed were medically necessary and paid appropriately.”
Article Author: Beth Cobb, RN, BSN, ACM, CCDS
Beth Cobb, RN, BSN, ACM, CCDS, is the Manager of Clinical Analytics at Medical Management Plus, Inc. Beth has over twenty-five years of experience in healthcare including eleven years in Case Management at a large multi-facility health system. In her current position, Beth is a principle writer for MMP’s Wednesday@One weekly e-newsletter, an active member of our HIPAA Compliance Committee, MMP’s Education Department Program Director and co-developer of MMP’s proprietary Compliance Protection Assessment Tool.
