It’s that time of year again: hurricane season. With Hurricane Florence having already made headlines across the country thanks to the widespread flooding it caused across North and South Carolina, hurricanes and the destruction they cause is now back at the forefront of many people’s minds. These disasters often leave thousands of people either displaced from their homes or forced to wait out the storm, two options that can put a dangerous strain on local healthcare facilities and their patients alike. Thankfully, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has allowed several Medicare exemptions for those who are caught in disaster areas.

For those caught in federal disaster zones, the following Medicare exemptions automatically go into effect:

Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs): three-day prior hospitalization coverage requirement is waived; patients who have already used all SNF benefits will have their SNF coverage temporarily restored.

Critical access hospitals (CAHs): limits on bed number and patient stay duration are waived.

Home health agencies (HHAs): OASIS transmission timeframes are waived; Request for Anticipated Payment requests can be extended.

Durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS): new physician’s order requirements, new medical necessity requirements, and face-to-face requirements are all waived for DMEPOS lost or damaged by the disaster.

Prescription medications: Medicare will pay to replace covered Part B drugs that were lost due to the disaster.

While these Medicare exemptions are all blankets waivers that affect anyone in the declared disaster areas, other unique factors may affect those is specific areas. If your practice or facility is in an area that has been hit by a major natural disaster such as a hurricane, be sure to check with CMS to see what other potential waivers may be in effect. And as always, be sure to document everything thoroughly so that you have proper proof that your policies temporarily changed due to a natural disaster.

If you’d like more information on the current Medicare updates, join our Medicare 4th Quarter Updates Live Webinar with Terry Fletcher on Tuesday, December 11, 2018.