The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published a transmittal detailing changes for coding hospice discharges, which will provide greater clarity as to why the patient has been discharged from hospice care.
Currently, hospices use code 42 to indicate patient discharges for both patient-initiated terminations and hospice-initiated discharges. The National Uniform Billing Committee (MUBC) recently approved a new condition code, code 52, to indicate when a patient is discharged for moving out of the services area or entering a facility with which the hospice has to contract.
As of July 1, hospices may only use code 42 to indicate when the patient is discharged due to revocation of the hospice benefit. Hospices must use code 50 or 51 to indicate a transfer to another hospice and code H2 to indicate a discharge for cause. When a patient is discharged due to no longer being terminally ill, there is no indicator code required.
A chart explaining the appropriate use scenarios is available in the above-linked transmittal.
Should you have any questions, please contact:
Todd Selby at 317.977.1440 or tselby@wp.hallrender.com;
Brian Jent at 317.977.1402 or bjent@wp.hallrender.com; or
David Bufford at 502.568.9368 or dbufford@wp.hallrender.com,
or your regular Hall Render attorney.
