Re: Re: Please help! How to bill for office visit for home hospice patients?

[Guest guest]

I forwarded something about this topic.

 

It gets even better if you are the hospice director and trying to bill out a visit for your own patient that is in hospice.

 

Sigh.

 

Locke, MD

 

Thank you all for the helpful information. We will try again to contact the local hospice again too. Helen

To: From: peterl@...Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 21:12:41 +0000 Subject: Re: Please help! How to bill for office visit for home hospice patients? 

Professional services of attending physicians, who may be nurse practitioners, furnished to hospice beneficiaries are coded with modifier GV. (Attending physician not employed or paid under arrangement by the patient's hospice provider); the GW modifier is billed for services unrelated to the terminal illness

CMS Pub 100-4, Chap 11 Section 40.2; or CR 3226 Your local hospice should be able to help you with billing problems. Since you're the primary, you should get paid for visits regardless of the diagnosis. Also, if you spend at least 30 minutes a month, you can bill for oversight.

http://www.nhpco.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=5583http://www.nhpco.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=5551

Medicare Codes for Care Plan Oversighthttp://www.suttervnaandhospice.org/doctors/doctors_cpo.htmlCodes for care plan oversight are: GO181 for home health, and GO82 for hospice.

You may bill for 30 minutes of care plan oversight a month, including medical decision making; review of charts, reports, or treatment plans; review of lab or study results that weren't ordered during or associated with a face-to-face encounter; phone calls to other health professionals involved in the care of the patient; phoning in prescriptions; and other items on the home care or hospice patient's behalf.

Medicare Codes for Home Health Certification and RecertificationMedicare will also reimburse physicians separately just for signing the 485 (home care treatment plan), even if you do not spend the required minimum of 30-minutes of oversight to bill for CPO. This applies to home care only, not hospice.

The code for certification of home care treatment plans is GO180. The code for recertification is GO179. The physician billing for CPO must document in the patient's record the services furnished and the date and length of time associated with those services.

A blessing on you for easing their suffering.