E T Russell ____ Bear Valley Community
Healthcare District Chief Executive Officer Raymond T. Hino announced early Thursday August 7th morning that
the community Hospital has been approved as California’s 34th Critical
Access Hospital.
In
the letter, dated July 29, 2014, is stated that the Critical Access conversion became effective on May
23, 2014. That is good news from a Medicare payment standpoint, since
BVCHD should now benefit from the higher CAH rates retroactive to May 23,
2014.
Hino
expressed concern about the late notification and a possible need to
refund Medicare payments received since May 23rd and rebill under the
new Medicare provider number. This could cause a short term delay in
Medicare payments. The Hospital accounting staff, billing staff, IT staff
and CEO Hino are working on getting this billing problem resolved as quickly as
possible.
According to Hino, “The overall affect of the earlier Critical Access Hospital
conversion date should be positive for
BVCHD. We stand to gain three more months of enhanced Medicare payments
that we were planning on.
The downside is that since we have been issued a new Medicare
provider number, we will most likely need to refund Medicare payments received
for services rendered from May 23, 2014 to August 7, 2014. We would
need to rebill those claims. This could result in a short term situation where
it may mean waiting for Medicare payments after they are rebilled. This
would be short term only and would not result in a loss of Medicare dollars
received by the hospital.”
The
CAH status is a very positive change for Bear Valley Community
Hospital. The Hospital stands to
receive hundreds of thousands of dollars more from Medicare insured patients
than the Hospital currently receives. Nationwide, since the Critical Access Hospital program
was originally created in 1997, thousands of hospitals across the country have
converted to Critical
Access Hospitals and most say that the program saved their hospitals from
closing. Critical Access Hospital designation has no affect on current
hospital services. It does not require that any elimination of services
and it does not require that any new services be added, either.
Wanting to clarify the question of rebilling and possible delay of
payment, CEO Hino contacted Noridian, the Medicare Payor after the
original announcement was released to the press. Thursday afternoon, he was
assured by a Noridian
spokesperson that Noridian will be issuing a letter to BVCHD in the near future,
in which they will be notifying the Hospital that they should switch to the new
number. It was emphasized they
want to avoid rebilling Medicare claims and a lapse in Medicare payments. BVCHD
should not experience a need for rebilling or a lapse in payments.
For
months, the Critical Access process has been a priority for the BVCHD board of
directors, the hospital staff, and a major project for Chief Executive Officer
Raymond T. Hino, that he is delighted to call ‘A Great Success!’
See previous article - http://www.bigbearlake.net/account/sites/ETNews/pages/Hospital-GOOD-NEWS