Rural Health Clinic Billing Basics

This webinar will provide a detailed overview of the Medicare billing requirements for rural health clinics (RHC), including the definition of a qualifying visit, locations where billable RHC services can occur, claim coding guidelines and [...]

A/B and DME Collaborative YouTube Video

A/B and DME Collaborative YouTube Video The A/B DME MACs are offering a YouTube video on Urological Supplies. This DME video tutorial provides information about urological supply requirements. Posted 5/7/2025  

Provider Contact Center – Make the Most of Your Call

Provider Contact Center – Make the Most of Your Call As of 5/1/2025, the Provider Contact Center (PCC) will service one PTAN/NPI combination per call. Before calling the PCC, make the most of your call by ensuring you have all authentication [...]

Outpatient Psychotherapy Services: A Focus on Coverage and Documentation Requirements

Outpatient psychotherapy services are being reviewed as part of our Part A Medical Review Targeted Probe and Educate program. This session will provide a high-level overview of outpatient psychotherapy services with a focus on coverage and [...]

Provider Enrollment: Opioid Treatment Program

During this webinar, we’ll provide a brief overview of an Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) provider, an understanding of submitting the CMS-855A or CMS-855B paper application and how to complete the provider enrollment Internet-based Provider [...]

Skilled Nursing Facility Consolidated Billing

Did you know that skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are responsible for paying outside entities for most services provided to beneficiaries while they are in a covered Part A stay and for certain services for Part B beneficiaries? Streamline [...]

Telehealth for Hospice Face-to-Face Recertification Extended Through September 30, 2025

Telehealth for Hospice Face-to-Face Recertification Extended Through September 30, 2025 Hospice physicians and nurse practitioners may continue to conduct the face-to-face encounter required for recertification using telehealth (audio/video [...]

COVID-19

COVID-19 The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared a PHE on 3/13/2020 and it was officially expired on 5/11/2023. Please visit CMS' Current emergencies web page for complete details on the PHE. Email Updates To keep you informed [...]

Reminder: New Medicare Part B Redetermination Notice Initiative

Reminder: New Medicare Part B Redetermination Notice Initiative As a reminder, beginning 3/3/2025, National Government Services will only issue electronic versions of the MRN when a Medicare Part B Redetermination request is electronically [...]

2025 Gapfill Request

2025 Gapfill Request National Government Services, the MAC for JK and J6 is in receipt of the new laboratory test codes identified by the CMS to be gap-fill priced for 2025. The PAMA regulations instruct the MACs to establish local payment [...]

2025 Gapfill Request Reminder

2025 Gapfill Request Reminder National Government Services, the MAC for JK and J6, is in receipt of the new laboratory test codes identified by CMS to be gap-fill priced for 2025. Please access the complete information on our website: 2025 [...]

Medicare Advantage Information For Part A and Part B Not Offered on the IVR Beginning 3/14/2025

Medicare Advantage Information For Part A and Part B Not Offered on the IVR Beginning 3/14/2025 Effective the evening of 3/14/2025, the Medicare IVR system will no longer provide information regarding the Medicare Advantage:  plan [...]

Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program

Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program Table of Contents Background What is the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program? Overview of MDPP What is Covered Through the Model? What Does this Mean for Beneficiaries? What Does this Mean [...]

Membership Rosters

Membership Rosters Jurisdiction 6 and Jurisdiction K Home Health POE Advisory Group Roster Member Provider/Institution State Abreau-Costa, Maria Mozaic Senior Life Connecticut Adam, Sherie [...]

Diabetes Self-Management Training

Preventive Services Guide Diabetes Self-Management Training According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 38.4 million Americans have diabetes and 27.2 million people aged 65 years or older (48.8%) have been [...]

Common Questions for Diabetes Self-Management Training and Medical Nutrition Therapy

Common Questions for Diabetes Self-Management Training and Medical Nutrition Therapy Table of Contents Diabetes Programs Billing for Services DSMT and MNT Telehealth Services Related Content [Return to Top] Diabetes Programs [...]

Meeting Schedules

Meeting Schedule Part A POE AG Meetings for Jurisdiction 6 and Jurisdiction K J6: Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Federally-Qualified Health Centers in all states JK: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island [...]

The National Correct Coding Initiative

The National Correct Coding Initiative The purpose of the NCCI PTP edits is to prevent improper payment when incorrect code combinations are reported. The NCCI contains one table of edits for physicians/practitioners and one table of edits for [...]

Expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model

Expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model Overview The HHVBP Model is an initiative by CMS aimed at improving the quality of care provided by home health agencies while also fostering greater efficiency. It builds on the original [...]

Tobacco Cessation Counseling Doesn’t Have To Be Lengthy or Intimidating

Tobacco Cessation Counseling Doesn’t Have To Be Lengthy or Intimidating Did you know that tobacco cessation counseling is a covered Medicare service? Brief tobacco counseling provides substantial health benefits while producing cost savings. [...]

HCPCS 90658 Claim Hold

Claim hold for CPT 90658 (influenza vaccine)

FQHC Claim Hold Effective DOS 1/1/2025

CMS has issued claim hold instructions to all MACs, due to release and testing of a new FQHC pricer.

[RESOLVED] Medicare Claim Process System Experiencing Outages

[RESOLVED] Medicare Claim Process System Experiencing Outages We were experiencing outages with our IVR and NGSConnex claim status functionality. Technical support was engaged and the issue is now resolved. The IVR and NGSConnex claim status [...]

How To Get Started - Five Easy Steps

How To Get Started – Five Easy Steps Contact your vendor, clearinghouse or billing service to ensure they support the electronic attachment program which includes the following: 6020 version of the 277RFI transaction; HL7 CDA R2 [...]

MLN Connects® Newsletter: February 14, 2025

MLN Connects® Newsletter: February 14, 2025 News Complex Non-Chemotherapeutic Drug Administration: Determining Payment for Services Claims, Pricers, & Codes Ambulance Fee Schedule: CY 2025 Inflation Factor Integrated Outpatient [...]

PA Exemption Tool Top

Prior Authorization Exemption Status Inquiry Tool This is a self-service tool to allow both hospital or physician office staff responsible for submitting PARs, to check the exempt status of the HOPD. This tool will only recognize the [...]

Reminder: New Medicare Part B Redetermination Notice Initiative

Reminder: New Medicare Part B Redetermination Notice Initiative As we’ve communicated, National Government Services is transitioning to electronic notifications for Part B Medicare Redetermination decisions when a Medicare Part B [...]

Collaborative Urological Supplies Webinar Coming 3/27/2025

Collaborative Urological Supplies Webinar Coming 3/27/2025 This is your opportunity to hear directly from the Medicare contractors regarding Medicare’s criteria necessary for the coverage of urological supplies. Representatives from all four [...]

Requirements of Medicare Opt-Out Affidavit Agreement

Requirements of Medicare Opt-Out Affidavit Agreement Amendment 4507 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 permits a physician or practitioner to “opt out” of Medicare and enter into private contracts with Medicare beneficiaries if specific [...]

Prepare and Submit an MSP Conditional Claim

Table of Contents Background Step 1: Determine if You Can Submit a Conditional Claim Step 2: Prepare a Conditional Claim Conditional Billing Code Table Step 3: Check for a Matching MSP Record for the Beneficiary in the Common [...]

Local Coverage Determination Open Meeting

Local Coverage Determination Open Meeting National Government Services is hosting a Local Coverage Determination Open Meeting on 3/13/2025. Details are available by accessing the Local Coverage Determination Open Meeting Announcement. [...]

NCCI Lookup Tool

Reminder: New Medicare Part B Redetermination Notice Initiative

Reminder: New Medicare Part B Redetermination Notice Initiative Beginning 3/3/2025, NGS will only issue electronic versions of the MRN when a Medicare Part B Redetermination request is electronically submitted through our portal, NGSConnex. [...]

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Using Antiretroviral Therapy to Prevent HIV Infection

Preventive Services Guide Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Using Antiretroviral Therapy to Prevent HIV Infection PrEP involves the use of antiretroviral drugs to decrease the risk of acquiring HIV. Under Section 1861(ddd)(1) of the Social Security [...]

Important Update for Part B Providers – New NCCI Lookup Tool

Important Update for Part B Providers – New NCCI Lookup Tool The Medicare NCCI promotes accurate coding and prevents improper payments. We have added the NCCI Lookup Tool to our Part B Tools and Calculators page. This tool helps providers [...]

Common Working File Host Dark Days for April 2025 Release

Common Working File Host Dark Days for April 2025 Release For Production, CWF will be observing the Gray Day on Thursday, April 3rd, and Dark Days starting Friday, April 4th through Sunday, April 6th to accommodate the anticipated duration of [...]

Inactivity

Inactivity Medicare will routinely deactivate the billing privileges of those providers who fail to bill the Medicare Program for six consecutive months or more. Each billing account is considered separately for the deactivation criteria. This [...]

Do Not Forward “DNF”

Do Not Forward “DNF” With implementation of the DNF initiative, contractors were required to use “return service requested” envelopes for hard copy RAs, hard-copy checks and returned EFT payments. If you are a provider that receives hard [...]

Site Visit Failure

Site Visit Failure CMS reserves the right, when deemed necessary, to perform onsite review of a provider or supplier to verify that the enrollment information submitted to CMS or its agents is accurate and to determine compliance with Medicare [...]

Failure to Report Address Changes

Failure to Report Address Changes Providers who fail to report an address change will result in suspension of Medicare payment.   All Medicare providers are responsible for providing their Medicare contractor with their current and [...]