Bolster billing compliance: Implement a Medicare Part A triple-check process
Medicare billing is a domain rife with payer offshoots and evolving regulations that can be difficult to navigate without a strategy to weather claim scrutiny and withstand the gaze of CMS’ various auditing contractors.
Enter the triple-check process, a time-tested internal auditing strategy used by proactive long-term care providers to facilitate billing accuracy and compliance the first time a UB-04 claim form is submitted. As its name suggests, triple check is a layered verification process that involves staff members from billing, nursing, and therapy departments?the three core disciplines required to submit a clean claim. But this sturdy foundation is also pliable, allowing a facility to easily adapt the procedure to the various types of claims it files.
Read on for an expert iteration of the triple-check process, which is modified from the HCPro book The Medicare Billing Manual for Long-Term Care, written by Frosini Rubertino, RN, BSN, C-NE, CDONA/LTC. This specific triple-check procedure is designed to mobilize key staff to ensure accuracy and timely submission of Part A claims.
Procedure
Each month, the SNF will collect all Medicare Part A billing information ready for submission and enlist the following individuals to carry out their designated roles in verifying the accuracy of these items: administrator, director of nursing, MDS coordinator, facility rehab director or designee, business office manager, medical records personnel, and central supply staff.
The following is a breakdown of each of these staff members’ responsibilities in the triple-check process:
Business office manager and medical records personnel
- Verify that the qualifying stay information recorded on the UB-04 aligns with that on the medical records face sheet.
Business office manager
- Verify that each resident has benefit days available in the HIPAA Eligibility Transaction System.
- Verify the admit date on the UB-04 aligns with the date in the manual census log.
- Verify covered service dates listed on the UB-04 align with those in the Medicare and manual census logs.
- Verify that a resident’s financial file contains a signed and completed Medicare Secondary Payer form whenever applicable.
Business office manager and MDS coordinator
- Verify that ADLs are correct and are supported by documentation. Confirm that staff have coded all other contributory items (e.g., mood, IVs).
- Verify that ARDs on each MDS align with the occurrence dates found at form locators (FL) 31?34 on the UB-04.
- Verify that the RUG level listed on each MDS aligns with that found at FL 44 on the UB-04.
- Verify that the assessment type for each MDS aligns with the modifier found at FL 44 on the UB-04.
- Verify that the number of accommodation units listed on the UB-04 aligns with the assessment type for each MDS. Verify that the total number of accommodation units aligns with corresponding covered service dates.
Facility rehab director, MDS coordinator, and business office manager
- Verify that physical therapy minutes listed on the daily treatment grid align with those noted in the service log. Align the days and minutes documented in the MDS with those on the treatment grid. Align the number of units billed on the UB-04 with those in the service log.
- Verify that each principal diagnosis is accurate, that all secondary diagnoses support skilled care, and that every ICD-9 code corresponds to an appropriate diagnosis.
- Verify that occupational therapy minutes recorded on the daily treatment grid align with those in the service log. Align the days and minutes in the MDS with those on the treatment grid. Align the number of units billed on the UB-04 with those in the service log.
- Verify that speech therapy minutes listed on the daily treatment grid align with those noted in the service log. Align the days and minutes in the MDS with those on the treatment grid. Align the number of units billed on the UB-04 with those in the service log.
DON and medical records personnel
- Verify each resident’s need for Medicare skilled intervention by reviewing supporting clinical documentation that corresponds with the dates of service listed in the manual census log.
- Verify that each (re)certification form has been completed and signed by the appropriate physician.
- Verify that each physician order has been obtained and implemented.
- Verify that each chart reflects appropriate charting guidelines. Confirm that charting has been completed at least once in every 24-hour period, relates to skilled service provided, and supports therapy.
Facility rehab director
- Verify that physician orders include rehabilitation.
- Verify that each evaluation notes the prior level of function.
- Verify that clinical documentation contains a progress note establishing the need for continued skilled intervention.
Administrator
- Chair the triple-check meeting (detailed below), and ensure that the entire process is completed by appropriate staff each month before Medicare claims are submitted. Participation in the triple check will allow the administrator to monitor the effectiveness of key operational processes carried out by the facility’s interdisciplinary team (IDT) on an ongoing basis.
Triple-check meeting and audit tool
Each of the SNF’s triple-check participants should complete their respective duties prior to the Medicare triple-check meeting, which will be held monthly before the SNF bills for a given batch of services. In other words, the meeting is not an occasion for staff to complete their initial claim component(s). Instead, it’s a chance for IDT members to cross-check the work of their colleagues by verifying the accuracy of claim items that others have completed, thereby ensuring each element has been studied by multiple sets of eyes.
The triple-check meeting will also serve as the platform for the SNF’s business office manager to document the completion of each integral item on a billing claim using the triple-check audit tool, an internal checklist-type document that will be included in every month-end closing report.
Using this audit tool, the manager will denote items verified as correct during the triple-check meeting with an "X." He or she will mark items identified as incorrect with an "O" and, in the remarks section of the document, record the steps the team will take to obtain the correct information. Items initially found to be incorrect but rectified during the meeting should still be marked with an "O" to better track any practice patterns that could lead to billing slipups and inform future training activities.
The business office manager will call for any claim found to have errors during the triple-check meeting to be put on hold until it is amended. Once staff have made necessary revisions, the manager will indicate these correction(s) and the corresponding date(s) in the remarks section of the audit tool. He or she will then contact a corporate entity to review the changes and ultimately grant approval to submit the claim.