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Inpatient HINNs - Protecting the hospital’s right to recover payment for non-covered services

Patient Access Weekly Advisor, September 16, 2009

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Editor’s note: Judith Kares, JD, CPC, regulatory specialist for HCPro, Inc., is the author of this passage.

Last month, I participated in an HCPro audioconference on HINNs. "HINN" stands for hospital-issued notice of non-coverage. It’s the inpatient equivalent of an advanced beneficiary notice (ABN).

Under Medicare’s limitation on liability (LOL) provisions, hospitals are required to provide prior notice, in a prescribed form, when certain outpatient or inpatient services ordered by a physician do not meet Medicare’s medical necessity guidelines for the patient’s condition.

In such cases, the ABN is the prescribed form of prior notice for outpatient services, while the HINN is the prescribed from of prior notice for inpatient services. Although the prior notice requirements for LOL have been in place for a number of years, hospitals continue to struggle to provide timely, appropriate notification, particularly in the inpatient setting.

Click over to the MedicareMentor Blog to read more.

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