HCPro.com: Billing Alert for Long-Term Care

It's essential to know how to correctly submit your Medicare claims in order to get the reimbursement your facility deserves. Billing Alert for Long-Term Care provides the crucial tips and strategies that billers need for success.

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May 2008 (Volume 10, Issue 5)	view entire issue

Learn mechanics of Part B wound care supply billing
Editor's note: The following is the last article in a two-part series about Part B wound care supply billing and examines UB-04 coding issues and provides tips on auditing your wound care billing program. Part one addressed how to determine whether billing these supplies makes financial sense for your facility, what the core requirements are, and what roles key departments must play to ensure successful billing.

Audit routinely to ensure billing accuracy
Facilities that bill for wound care supplies should conduct an internal audit quarterly, as well as an external audit annually with a wound care consultant or other expert, said Marilyn Mines, RN, BC, RAC-C, manager of clinical services for FR&R Healthcare Consulting, Inc., in Deerfield, IL, during the December 18, 2007, HCPro audioconference, "Billing for Part B Wound Care: Get Paid for the Care and Supplies Your [Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)] Provides."

SNF ABN to be implemented by September 1
Change was the watchword for the February Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)/Long-Term Care Open Door Forum and the March Physicians, Nurses, and Allied Health Professionals Open Door Forum. CMS officials discussed topics that promise some potential upheaval for SNF business offices. Beneficiary notice changes are under way CMS released a revised general advance beneficiary notice (ABN) the first week of March. This revised notice will replace the two mandatory Part B ABNs, the general-use ABN-G and the laboratory-use ABN-L, as well as the voluntary general notice of exclusions from Medicare benefits (NEMB), said CMS officials.

BALTC Q&A
Editor's note: "Q&A" was written by Lee A. Heinbaugh, president of the Heinbaugh Group, a long-term care consulting company in Lakewood, OH.

Other recently-published articles from Billing Alert for Long-Term Care:

BALTC Q&A

Six steps to better Medicare coinsurance billing

Prepare for a personal funds review during survey

BALTC Q&A

Want to bill more accurately?

CMS issues draft supplemental compliance guidance for nursing facilities; resident care a top concern for OIG

Medicare payments expected to decline in 2009

Audit your demand billing process before surveyors do

Learn the basics: What the CCI edits mean to you

Gain control of CCI edits on Part B therapy claims

Qualifying stay criteria not met? You still might need to submit a Part A claim

DMEPOS competitive bidding: First round begins July 1

BALTC Q&A

Postacute care demonstration up and running

Medicare Advantage plans: Steps to trouble-free billing

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