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- Medicare News -
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Administration
Phone: 360-394-7020Fax: 360-394-7099
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 Credit Card Processing
Official Payments and Systems Design are completing an arrangement for our providers to offer patients online credit card and electronic check processing. The Official Payments method of credit card and electronic check processing is compliant with the Washington State RCW 36.29.190 ( RCW text) per this system. The credit card processing fees will be paid by the patient when they submit their payment for any private portion of their ambulance transport bill. The full amount owed will be directly deposited to the provider's designated bank account. Official Payments is the national leader in public funds credit payment processing. Systems Design will be sending information to each of our clients about how to proceed with this valuable option if your organization chooses to do so. |
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Billing News...
Systems Design is nearing completion of our web server systems upgrade which will enable our clients live access to their financial reports online. When this project is completed, we will e-mail notification that your month end financial reports are finalized. Each client will log into a secure web server at Systems Design. With a user name and password you will be able to view, download and print any report that is available in our system on demand. Stage two of this project includes the ability to access any patient account and history within our system on demand.
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Events
Fall Conference
9/27-10/2/2010 |
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Previous Newsletters?
Maybe you missed a earlier newsletter, or want to refer back. Just click on the link below to view our Newsletter Archive page.
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Budget cuts & downsizing?
...fire response at retirement centers?
... mixing business & pleasure?
(Say, where are the golf clubs?) |
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House Cleaning
It is time to do some house cleaning. Systems Design, as you may be aware, recently moved to our new building in Poulsbo. We have also moved about 10 years of old documents from our storage facilities in Silverdale to our location in Poulsbo. Our plans for these documents are as follows:
- Financial records, such as remittance advice, explanation of benefits and deposit slips, must be maintained for a minimum of 7 years according to the law. We plan to retain and keep these documents in our secured building for a minimum of 10 years unless directed to destroy or return them to the provider.
- Trip notes on file that are 3 years or older will be turned over to the provider unless directed by the FD to destroy them.
All paper PCRs, MIRs and financial records that are 3 years old or less will be maintained at Systems Design's secure facilities in Poulsbo for day-to-day use and for safekeeping for our clients. Our plans for the future include a bi-annual house cleaning. As we continue to bring clients on electronically and payers send EFTs instead of paper checks, the paper storage will become smaller as we go along. We are also planning to scan all documents into electronic form and eliminate the paper. We will provide an option to the client to return it or destroy it. |
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Medicare News
Fee Schedule Update
We are happy to report that new Medicare claims are being paid with the correct bonus amounts. They have also begun processing adjustments for the two-week period of overpayments that we mentioned in last month's newsletter. Medicare has not started to process the additional bonus payments on previously paid 2010 claims. We will let you know when these payments arrive.
Many of the Medicare Advantage plans, like Group Health Medicare and Secure Horizons have also updated to the new fee schedule and are paying correctly. We will follow up with any Medicare Advantage plan that does not update to the correct fee schedule. |
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 Sharing Information on Federal & State Standards
Total OnBoarding
Recent changes to HIPAA legislation will require a change to the electronic claims format during 2011. To prepare for these changes, Medicare (Noridian) is requiring all ambulance suppliers to register through a process called Total OnBoarding. Our goal is to have everyone registered by the end of this year.
Some of you have already gone through the Total OnBoarding process and do not need anything further. For those who have not, either Shelley, Donna or Jody will be contacting you and setting up a time to walk through the process with you. The total time to complete registration is between 10-20 minutes and all you need is internet access.
Latest Signature Rules
Medicare has recently outlined new rules for signatures and how the audit contractors should handle illegible signatures during a claims review. Any time the signature requirements are not met, the audit contractor can ask for verification of the signature in the form of an attestation statement or a signature log. A good rule of thumb for any signature is to date it and clearly print it under the signature if it is not legible. This includes signatures by crewmembers, patients and physicians.
The website for Page, Wolfberg and Wirth has several forms that can be edited for use by any ambulance service. For those of you who use PWW's patient signature form, it has been recently updated. The wording and usage is basically the same but the format has changed.
To view and download forms and to see more details on signature instructions, go to...
The Physician Certification Statement (PCS) form has also been changed and there are 2 new forms-Signature Log and Signature Attestation. These forms directly relate to the audit contractors and how they are going to handle illegible signatures. Let's say that an audit contractor selects a claim from 2008 for review. The pre-hospital care report is signed by the crewmember but the signature is not legible. The audit contractor will request the signature be verified either through a signature log or an attestation statement within 20 days. If that crewmember is still with your organization, getting an attestation statement will be a little time consuming but it can be done. If that crewmember is no longer with your organization, Medicare will take back their payment unless you have a signature log which includes that crewmember's signature. For those of you who provide non-emergency, interfacility transports, the same issue can arise with physician signatures on the PCS form.
How can you best safeguard against signature problems in an audit? First, establish procedures where signatures are always dated and, if illegible, are also clearly printed. Second, establish a signature log that lists all your crewmembers, their signature and their level of certification. And third, for those who provide non-emergency, interfacility transports, develop physician signature logs through your hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. For the complete copy of Medicare's guidance, go to... http://www.cms.gov |
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