10/18/2022 Home Health POE Advisory Group Meeting
Meeting Minutes
Meeting Time: 2:00 p.m. ET
Member Attendees: Carla Alexander, Dean Chalios, Jeanne Chirico, Patrick Conole, Craig DeVoe, Linda Emmons, Theresa Forster, Sharon Fries, Barbara Hansen, Brianna Lindell, Anne-Mary Marsh, Ed Martin, Christine McMichael, Renee Moulton, Nicholas Oliver, Francisco Otero, Colleen Pierro, Kerry Stevenson, Cindy Vanyi, Katie Wehri, Tracy Wodatch, Lori Young, Jamie Thompson
National Government Services Associates: Erin Musumeci, Mike Davis, Shelly Dailey, Christa Shipman, Janet Wood, Charity Bright
Agenda
- Welcome/Introductions/Agenda
- NGS Self Service/Provider Experience Team Updates
- NGS Jurisdiction Affairs Update
- NGS HH+H Education
- Open Forum/Reminders
I. Welcome/Introductions/Agenda
Erin Musumeci/Mike Davis, NGS
Erin opened the meeting, welcomed everyone and reviewed the agenda. All attendance for this meeting was captured via Go-To-Webinar. Mike Davis provided updates to the HH+H POE team including, effective Monday, 10/24/2022 Emily Fox-Squairs will take over as the new HH+H POE Team Manager and he will remain focused on Part A. Janet Wood will no longer be with us for hospice billing.
II. NGS Self-Service/Provider Experience Team Updates
Charity Bright, NGS
Charity reviewed and explained recently added functionality that was previously available in the Legacy Connex Portal to allow Part A providers to submit audit and reimbursement documentation.
Based on data analysis from feedback, the following changes were implemented: (1) on 7/22/2022 all MR ADRs that are still awaiting documentation displayed first under ADR Summary, (2) on 7/29/2022 extended the NGSConnex users timeout from 15 to 30 minutes.
Coming in middle to late August 2023, providers will be able to respond to claims ADRs via the NGSConnex system. Coming in middle to late February 2023, providers will be able to view and print duplicate 1099s. Also coming in early 2023, adding functionality for two-way communication regarding MR ADR, allowing providers to securely interact with the Medical Review nurses.
III. Jurisdiction Affairs Update
Michael Dorris, NGS
Michael Dorris was unable to attend today’s meeting. However, he did email an update following the meeting to be posted with the minutes.
Check out the 10/6/2023 MLN section called ‘Information for Patients’ regarding the 2023 Medicare & You handbook. The 2023 Medicare & You Handbook is available. Encourage your patients to get it electronically! Go digital with electronic Medicare Summary Notices. Help Medicare save money by switching to the electronic versions. Share the online 2023 Medicare & You Handbook with your patients and their caregivers.
Friendly Reminder – Hospice Billing Instructions for Influenza, Pneumococcal and Hepatitis B Vaccines
IV. NGS HH+H Education
Erin Musumeci, NGS
Erin reviewed information regarding routine scheduled NGS Hospice related webinars: AG members were informed of the recently updated Hospice Transfers and Revocation Webinar scheduled for November 9th as well as all the other hospice webinars scheduled for the months of November and December 2022:
- Orientation to HH+H Medicare
- Responding to a HH+H TPE ADR
- Current HH+H Edits and Denials
- Hospice Clinical Documentation for Transfers and Revocation
Hospice Articles/Emails and Job Aids: AG members were provided a short NGS website tutorial on how to find our hospice articles/emails and job aids. Reviewed how to find the ‘Sign up for email updates’ link on the NGS website, encourage AG members to sign up if not already.
Hospice YouTube and On-Demand Video Library: AG members reminded of the current YouTube Videos, as well as the new HH+H On-Demand Video Library, how to access, encouraged members to save to their favorites bar, ease of use, free, use for training staff, on the go training.
- The New Home Health and Hospice On-Demand Video Library
- Clinical Documentation Videos
- Billing Videos
Erin provided updates for the following:
- Increase in Followers
- Recent HH+H and Other Related Tweets
Medicare University
- Erin reviewed what’s available on the MU website for Hospice Computer Based Trainings and provided a live tutorial on how to find our Medicare University Course List out on the NGSMedicare.com website under Education > Medicare University > Medicare University Course List
JK and J6 Hospice 2022 POE AG Meeting Schedule: Erin reviewed all completed POE AG meeting dates for 2022, advised where the minutes are posted on the NGS website and that the 2023 meeting schedule will be posted to the website following our HH+H POE Education planning meeting at the end November 2022
- Next meeting: TBD
JK and J6 Hospice 2022 POE ACT Schedule: Erin reviewed all completed meeting dates for 2022, advised where the minutes are posted on the NGS website and that the 2023 meeting schedule will be posted to the website following our HH+H POE Education planning meeting at the end November 2022
- Next meeting: TBD
2022 NGS HH+H POE Collaborative Conference Events: Erin reviewed the completed and upcoming J6/JK Collaborative Home Health and Hospice Live Event Schedule.
- NHPCO Leadership Conference (National Harbor, MD) 3.2022
- Washington and Oregon State Association Annual Conference 4.2022
- Data Soft Logic MAC HH+H Event (Los Angeles, CA) 04.2022
- MI State Home Health and Hospice Annual Conference (Traverse City, MI) 05.2022
- CAHSAH 2022 Annual Conference and Expo (Rancho Mirage, CA) 05.2022
- Wisconsin Association (The Dells, WI) 06.2022
- CHAPCA Conference (Orange, CA) 06.2022
- AAHC AHPCO (Phoenix, AZ) 06.2022
- Data Soft Logic HH+H MAC Event (Sacramento, CA) 07.2022
- 2022 MAC Collaborative Summit (Las Vegas, NV) 09.2022
- NAHC (St. Louis, MO) 10.2022
- Hospice and Palliative Care Federation of Massachusetts, (Norwood, MA) 10.2022
- Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York (Albany, NY) 11.2022
The 2022 MAC Collaborative Home Health and Hospice Summit: Shelly and Mike provided a brief summary and highlights from the 2022 MAC Collaborative Summit that was held on September 13, 14 and 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada at The Rio Resort & Conference Center. The three-day event was a huge success with just shy of 800 providers in attendance and 30 educational sessions were provided. There were 40 plus speakers, including the HH+H POE consultants and Medical Directors from all three MACs, representatives from the NAHC and NHPCO, CMS and the DOJ. NGS has received a lot of positive feedback and we are excited to announce that CMS has given us the green light to proceed in the planning of another summit for 2023.
Advisory Group member suggestions: AG members were reminded to send any suggestions not shared during today’s meeting, for future Hospice education topics, YouTube videos, Computer Based Trainings, Webinars and Tweets to Erin Musumeci @ erin.musumeci@elevancehealth.com.
V. Open Forum/Reminders
NGS
Erin advised the AG members that the next meeting is TBD and will be announced and posted on our website following our HH+H POE meeting that is scheduled in late November 2022.
At this time the question box was opened up for members to type their questions. All phone lines were unmuted to give AG members the opportunity to ask questions and have open discussion during the open forum period.
- Do we keep a list of questions from previous ACTs that were held and keep track them?
Answer: Yes and they are posted to the NGS website within 30 business days of the live teleconference. You can find them by looking under the NGS website Events tab. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the ‘Past Events’ section and look for the name and date of the specific ACT Teleconference you are looking for, click on the ‘Read More’ link associated with that particular Teleconference, this will bring up a new window with an additional link labeled ‘Event/Question and Answer Summary’ this should bring up any pre-submitted questions that may have been submitted, the answers as well as any questions and answers that were asked during the live ACT session. - Will 2023 have the option to be in person for POE AG meetings?
Answer: If all of you, (the AG members) are willing to come and participate in person at a live POE AG meeting or two, then it is something that we will consider or entertain. It dedicates more time to the topics. Flexibility is the best answer for this at this time. A hybrid solution/model might work best; those that would prefer to be in person, they can travel and be live in-person and for those that wouldn’t, we would still offer the virtual option. - We have not had jurisdiction affairs update in the past two meetings. Is there any way we have get a current status of jurisdiction affairs? They've been silent for several meetings now.
Answer: We had an update from Jurisdiction Affairs at our previous POE AG meeting on June 14th 2022. To view the information provided during that meeting go to our website and follow this pathway Education > POE Advisory Group > Meeting Minutes > Jurisdiction 6 and Jurisdiction K Combined Meeting > 6/14/2022 to view the minutes.
Meeting Adjourned