February 1, 2010, Home Health & Hospice Medicare A ... - CGS

Availability of the Provider Contact Center (PCC)Medicare is a continuously changing program, and it is important that we provide correct and accurateanswers to your questions. To better serve the provider community, the Centers for Medicare & MedicaidServices (CMS) allows the provider contact centers the opportunity to offer training to our customer servicerepresentatives (CSRs). Listed below is the date and time the home health and hospice PCC (1-877-299-4500 and 1-866-539-5592) will be closed for training. We will continue to notify you of future CSRtraining dates in the Home Health & Hospice Medicare A Newsline.CSR Training DateFebruary 15, 2010 (Federal Holiday)Time8:00 a.m.—4:30 p.m. Central TimeNews from Cahaba for Hospice ProvidersReminder of Physician Narrative and Attestation Requirement on HospiceCertificationsAs a reminder, the August 6, 2009, Federal Register mandated that hospice certifications/recertificationsmust now include a brief narrative by the certifying physician to explain their clinical findings that supportthe patient’s life expectancy of six months or less. The narrative shall include a statement under thephysician signature attesting that by signing, the physician confirms that he/she composed the narrativebased on his/her review of the patient’s medical record, or if applicable, his or her examination of thepatient. The narrative must be composed by the same physician that signs the certification/recertification.Our Medical Review Department has informed us that many hospices are complying with the use of thephysician narrative requirement; however, the attestation statement is missing. Our Medical Review staffwill deny hospice claims which do not include this attestation statement on the narrative for thecertification/recertification. Therefore, ensure your hospice agency has implemented the necessary steps toinclude the attestation statement on narratives for your certifications and recertifications. For moreinformation about this requirement, please view the “Reminder – New Hospice Certification/RecertificationRequirements” article on page 28 of the October 1, 2009, Medicare A Newsline, or the “HospiceCertification/Recertification Requirements” Web page.Home Health & Hospice February 1, 2010 50Medicare A Newsline Vol. 17, No. 5