Fiscal Intermediary Standard System Direct Data Entry Screen Changes – April 2025

Fiscal Intermediary Standard System Direct Data Entry Screen Changes – April 2025 The April 2025 quarterly system release will update FISS DDE as described below: Inquiries Submenu (01) Option 1C (CMHC Payment Totals)/MAP1D62 - Monetary [...]

Tobacco Cessation and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Tobacco Cessation and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy CBT is a type of psychotherapy that’s problem oriented. It may help your patients learn how to change unhelpful or unhealthy ways of thinking, feeling and behaving especially when related to [...]

Provider Enrollment: Top Reasons Behind Delays in Processing the Application

Provider Enrollment: Top Reasons Behind Delays in Processing the Application Medicare enrollment plays a vital role in ensuring compliance with CMS requirements. To help streamline the process and achieve the best results, it's important to [...]

MCReF Hospice Cap Functionality

MCReF Hospice Cap Functionality Attention Hospice providers: The new MCReF Hospice Cap functionality will be covered in the upcoming MCReF Webinar scheduled for 3/19/2025, from 1:00 – 3:00PM ET.  The Hospice Cap provider community is [...]

NGS Review of Prior Authorization Request

NGS Review of Prior Authorization Request Table of Contents NGS Review of Prior Authorization Request Number of Trips Extended Affirmation Periods for Beneficiaries with Chronic Conditions Decision Letters Resubmitting a Prior [...]

Expedited Requests

Expedited Requests The requester may submit for an expedited review of the PAR if it is determined that a delay could seriously jeopardize the beneficiary’s life, health, or ability to regain maximum function. If the medical documentation does [...]

About Hospital OPD PA Model

About Hospital OPD PA Model Table of Contents About Hospital OPD PA Model General Information Related Content [Return to Top] About the Hospital OPD PA Model CMS implemented a PA program for certain hospital OPD services for DOS on [...]

Documentation Information

Documentation Information It is recommended that PARs are submitted at least seven calendar days prior to the expected date of service to allow National Government Services the full standard timeframe to receive and review requests. For [...]

Log In

Log In Table of Contents Log In Log into NGSConnex Log In Issues [Return to Top] Log In In order to login to NGSConnex, go to our website landing page. Read the standard disclaimer and click Accept to continue. [Return to [...]

Account Suspensions

Account Suspensions Table of Contents Account Suspensions Unsuspend Your Account Invalid Login Attempts [Return to Top] Account Suspensions If an NGSConnex account has not been used within the last 30 days, the account will be [...]

Caregiver Training Services

Caregiver Training Services Effective 1/1/2024, payment will be made when practitioners train caregivers to support patients with certain diseases or illnesses (e.g., dementia) in carrying out a treatment plan. A caregiver is defined as a [...]

Safeguard Your Finances: Know Your Provider Enrollment Revalidation

Safeguard Your Finances: Know Your Provider Enrollment Revalidation Attention: Provider Enrollment and Credentialing Teams Ensure you revalidate before your deadline to prevent a "Stay of Enrollment" or claim rejections, which could result in [...]

Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program 2025 Changes

Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program 2025 Changes The MDPP Expanded Model is intended to prevent Medicare beneficiaries with an indication of prediabetes from developing diabetes. Prevention of diabetes among this high-risk group of Medicare [...]

Home Health Claims Returning to Provider RC 19963

HH claims are returning to provider in error with RC 19963. This impacts HH claims with NOA/processed dates in January 2022. NOAs are being purged after 24 months. Please keep in mind there are claims that edit correctly for this reason code. [...]

NGS Office of Congressional Affairs Welcome Letter

Dear Members of Congress and Staff: As your work continues in the 119th Congress, National Government Services, Inc. maintains its dedicated role in serving your district/state as a Medicare contractor for Original Medicare. We are your [...]

Electronic Health Records

Electronic Health Records Eligible professionals under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program include: Doctor of medicine or osteopathy Doctor of dental surgery or dental medicine Doctor of podiatry Doctor of optometry Chiropractor If [...]

Medical Review: Targeted Probe and Educate Review Topics

Jurisdiction 6 HH+H Targeted Probe and Educate: Medical Review Topics Topic CPT Code(s) Common Denials Resources Home Health Services - Medical Necessity ICD-10 Z47-Z47.89 N/A 55H3V– The documentation did [...]

HETS EDI Recertification

MLN® Booklet: Medicare Billing: CMS-1500 & 837P

Enrollment Application Forms

Enrollment Application Forms You have two options for submitting your Part B Enrollment application to Medicare. You can choose to submit: Electronic application through PECOS, or CMS paper application forms Also view Understanding [...]

Provider Contact Center

Provider Contact Center Table of Contents Want to talk to us? Make the Most of Your Call Customer Care Representative Assistance Interactive Voice Response System NGSConnex Online Inquiry System Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [...]

Provider Contact Center

Provider Contact Center Table of Contents Want to talk to us? Make the Most of Your Call Customer Care Representative Assistance Interactive Voice Response System NGSConnex Online Inquiry System Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [...]

Provider Contact Center

Provider Contact Center Table of Contents Want to talk to us? Make the Most of Your Call Customer Care Representative Assistance Interactive Voice Response System NGSConnex Online Inquiry System Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [...]

Provider Contact Center

Provider Contact Center Table of Contents Want to talk to us? Make the Most of Your Call Customer Care Representative Assistance Interactive Voice Response System NGSConnex Online Inquiry System Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [...]

Medical Necessity and the Advance Beneficiary Notice

Register for this webinar and learn how to properly administer the Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN) within the office setting. If you are a physician, nonphysician practitioner or office staff member and interested in learning [...]

Smoking Cessation Tools and Resources - You Can Help Your Patients Quit Tobacco Use

Smoking Cessation Tools and Resources - You Can Help Your Patients Quit Tobacco Use Smokefree.gov Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Tips from Former Smokers campaign Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Office on Smoking [...]

Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Database

Medicare offers several tools to help providers bill their services. Many questions you have can be answered by learning how to access and use the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Database. We hope you'll join us for an overview of this database.

Using NGSConnex to Prevent Eligibility Denials and Rejections

During this webinar, we'll examine common eligibility denials and rejections for National Government Services Part B claims and provide strategies from NGSConnex to prevent them in future submissions. There will be time following the [...]

Steps to Claim Corrections

This webinar includes the top continuous errors we find at National Government Services with claim submissions. Join us to learn how to correct your claims. We will also include an interactive segment on the different claim scenarios that cause [...]

Proper Part B Claim Submissions

This webinar is intended to educate providers and office staff members on how to complete a clean claim to avoid claim rejections, developments or denials. We will guide you through the CMS-1500 claim form and the electronic equivalent loops [...]

U537I

Avoiding/Correcting This Error All dates of service reported on a period of care claim must be on or after the date of admission. Verify the from and through dates billed and all line-item dates of service to ensure the dates are within the [...]

Being Compliant by Avoiding Claim Denials, Reopenings and Redeterminations

National Government Services is committed to reducing provider burden associated with Medicare claim denials, reopenings and appeals. Don’t wait until you receive the claim denials that will increase your time, effort, and cost to have the [...]

Laboratory Part B Billing

During this webinar, we'll review the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services billing requirements for laboratory and pathology services and includes appropriate modifier usage when submitting claims for laboratory/pathology services. [...]

Reducing Unprocessable Claims

When claims are submitted with invalid, incomplete or incorrect information, our claims processing system will detect these errors and will reject claims as unprocessable. Our goal is to assist our providers in submitting claims correctly the [...]

Repetitive Scheduled Non-Emergent Ambulance Transports Prior Authorization

Attention All Independent Ambulance Suppliers! If you are providing repetitive, scheduled, non-emergent ambulance transports (RSNAT), you'll want to attend this webinar. Join us to learn everything you need to know about the RSNAT program.

Medically Unlikely Edits

Medically Unlikely Edits An MUE is the maximum number of UOS allowable under most circumstances for a single HCPCS/CPT code billed by a provider for a particular date of service for a single beneficiary. All claims submitted by physicians [...]

Unprocessable Claim Rejections and Corrections

Unprocessable Claim Rejections and Corrections Unprocessable claims are medical claims that cannot be processed by Medicare Part B National Government Services, because they contain incomplete, missing or invalid information. Incomplete [...]

FY 2027 Hospital Wage Index Development Timetable Final

National Correct Coding Initiative

National Correct Coding Initiative CMS developed the NCCI to promote national correct coding methodologies and eliminate improper coding of Medicare Part B claims. Coding policies are based on coding conventions defined in the AMA’s CPT [...]

FY 2027 PUF Release

FY 2027 PUF Release Availability and Revisions to Wage Index PUF On Friday, 5/23/2025, CMS released the preliminary FY 2027 Worksheet S-3, Parts II and III wage index PUF. The FY 2027 IPPS wage index will be calculated based on Federal [...]

Patient Driven Payment Model

Patient Driven Payment Model Table of Contents Assessment Schedule Administrative Presumption Lookback Period (Observation Period) Examples General PDPM Resources [Return to Top] Assessment Schedule Learn more about the [...]

NGS Medical Review Process

NGS Medical Review Process Medicare contractors, like National Government Services, operate the medical review program to prevent improper payments and protect the Medicare Trust Fund. Medical reviews involve the collection and clinical review [...]

Skilled Nursing Facility Town Hall Question and Answers

Skilled Nursing Facility Town Hall Questions and Answers Are daily notes required for skilled rehabilitation? Answer: Daily notes for rehabilitation are not required, however, they do support that therapy performed was skilled and [...]

Required Documentation

Required Documentation Table of Contents Required Documentation The medical record should contain patient specific information detailing Certification and Recertification Requirements Signature Requirement for Certifications and [...]

Skilled Services

Skilled Services Table of Contents Skilled Services Skilled Nursing Examples of skilled nursing Skilled Therapy Skilled Respiratory Nonskilled Service Examples Examples of personal care services General Skilled [...]

Coverage Requirements

Coverage Requirements Eligibility, preadmission, and 30-day transfer are components of coverage requirements for Skilled Nursing Facilities. There are several components to each of the coverage requirements; please utilize the links below to [...]

How to Prevent Common Skilled Nursing Facility Denials

How to Prevent Common Skilled Nursing Facility Denials This resource was developed to increase awareness and educate SNFs on the top errors found by our Medical Review team. The information includes suggestions to ensure documentation [...]

How to Find and Respond to Post Payment Review ADR

How to Find and Respond to Post Payment Review ADR Table of Contents How to Find and Respond to Post Payment Review ADR Responding to Post Payment Review ADR Steps to View and Print ADRs from FISS/DDE Provider Online System Related [...]

NGS Medical Review Process

NGS Medical Review Process Medicare contractors, like NGS, operate the medical review program to prevent improper payments and protect the Medicare Trust Fund. Medical reviews involve the collection and clinical review of medical records and [...]

Skilled Nursing Facility Educational Center

Skilled Nursing Facility Educational Center As part of the effort to lower the SNF improper payment rate, CMS has initiated a five claim Skilled Nursing Facility Probe & Educate allowing for outreach to all Medicare billing SNFs in the [...]

Medicare Review Contractors

During this webinar, we'll assist Medicare providers with knowing the difference between the Medicare review contractors and understanding their role in the Medicare review process. We'll discuss the Supplemental Medical Review [...]

Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption (CHOPD) Accelerated and Advance Payments for Part A Providers and Part B Suppliers

Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption (CHOPD) Accelerated and Advance Payments for Part A Providers and Part B Suppliers Please see the below for information related to the CHOPD Accelerated and Advance Payments for Part A Providers and [...]

New Version of PC-ACE: January 2025

New Version of PC-ACE: January 2025 PC-ACE Version 6.5 contains several CMS mandates and product enhancements including but not limited to the items listed below. Change Request (CR) 13794 - Combined Common Edits/Enhancements Modules [...]

MLN Connects® Newsletter: May 29, 2025

MLN Connects® Newsletter: May 29, 2025 News Inpatient Hospital Admissions: Transferring Medical Review Responsibilities for Short Stay Claims Medicare Shared Savings Program: Apply Now MLN Matters® Articles National Coverage [...]

Requesting an Exception to Timely Filing

Requesting an Exception to Timely Filing Table of Contents Requesting an Exception to Timely Filing No Appeal Rights for Claims Denied Based on Timely Filing Limit Provider Liability Exceptions that May Allow the Time Limit to be [...]

Tutorial

Medicare Claims: CMS-1500 or Electronic

Part A Ambulance Transport: Understanding the Basics

The purpose of this presentation is to give Medicare Part A Ambulance providers a better understanding of who is responsible to report services to Medicare.

PECOS: Manage Signatures and Additional Information Requests

During this webinar, we’ll give direction for the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) application on understanding how to manage signatures and respond to additional information request from submitted applications.