September 20 , 2006
Government Affairs
E-Update
Table
of Contents
Write Your Members of Congress: Temporary Medicare Ambulance Relief
Ambulance Cost Surveys Submission Deadline Extended
Nine-Day Medicare Payment Hold Begins This Friday
Reminder: CMS NPI Roundtable - September 26, 2006
Forwarded from CMS
Reminder: Section 1011 Conferences in El Paso and Newark
Forwarded from CMS
Last Chance to Submit AMBUPAC Raffle Prizes - Please Help Support our AMBUPAC
Write Your Members of Congress: Temporary Medicare Ambulance Relief
If you have not already done so, please right your Members of Congress on temporary Medicare ambulance relief. The AAA is currently proposing that Congress increase Medicare payments to all ambulance service providers by 5% for 2007 and 2008. It is critical that Members of Congress now hear from their ambulance service providers.
To write a letter using the AAA online letter writing tool, please go to: http://capwiz.com/the-aaa/home/. You can also access the system through the AAA homepage at www.the-aaa.org and clicking on "Write Your Members of Congress". The system will fax the letters to your Members of Congress for you! It should only take a few minutes to complete.
Quantria Strategies has extended the deadline for submitting completed ambulance cost surveys. If you have received a letter from Quantria Strategies asking you to complete a cost survey, please submit the survey as soon as possible. Quantria Strategies has received only 70 completed surveys while the target is 200. It is therefore crucial if you received a letter to complete and submit a survey at your first opportunity.
For those of you who are part of the random sample, you should also be receiving a phone call from a member of the AAA Board of Directors or AAA Reimbursement Task Force to make sure you received your survey letter. If you pledged to submit a survey and have not yet done so, you will be receiving a follow up call in the near future. It is critical that Quantria Strategies receive as many completed surveys from its random sample as possible.
Quantria Strategies has sent letters to 1,000 ambulance service providers asking that they participate in an ambulance cost study. The providers were randomly selected and represent a cross section of all provider types, service area populations and regions of the country. The AAA hired Quantria Strategies to conduct the study so that the ambulance industry will have a basis by which to compare the results of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on the costs of ambulance services now expected to be released this fall.
If you receive a letter, please follow the instructions and participate in the survey. It is critical that we have a large response rate. If you receive a letter and have any questions, please contact John O'Hare of Quantria Strategies at jfo@quantria.com or Judy Xanthopoulos at jax@quantria.com .
Nine-Day Medicare Payment Hold Begins This Friday
A temporary hold will be placed on Medicare payments for all claims (including ambulance) during the last 9 days of the Federal fiscal year (September 22 through September 30, 2006). These payment delays are mandated by section 5203 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. No interest will be accrued and no late penalties will be paid to a supplier or provider by reason of this one-time hold on payments. All claims held during this time will be paid on October 2, 2006.
This policy only applies to claims subject to payment. It does not apply to full denials, no-pay claims, and other non-claim payments such as periodic interim payments, home health requests for anticipated payments, and cost report settlements.
Please note that payments will not be staggered and no advance payments will be allowed during this 9-day hold. For more information, please view the MLN Matters Article at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM5047.pdf .
Reminder: CMS NPI Roundtable - September 26, 2006
Forwarded from CMS
CMS will host a national NPI Roundtable, open to all health care professionals, on Tuesday, September 26th from 2:00-3:30PM ET. To participate, you may call 1-877-203-0044, pass code 4795739.
CMS will address common questions related to Medicare's guidance on Subparts. While CMS will only address questions from a Medicare perspective, this information may be helpful to all providers. Medicare providers, who have questions, should select the appropriate email below and send in questions by Friday, September 8th. Questions received after this date will not be considered.
Medicare providers who bill a Fiscal Intermediary should send questions to: NPIQuestionsfromFIBillers@cms.hhs.gov .
Medicare providers who bill a Carrier should send questions to: NPIQuestionsfromCarrierBillers@cms.hhs.gov
Reminder: Section 1011 Conferences in El Paso and Newark
Forwarded from CMS
Ambulance providers/suppliers are encouraged to attend one of CMS' outreach and education conferences on the Section 1011 program. Section 1011 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003, provides $250 million per year to eligible providers for emergency health services furnished to undocumented and other specified aliens. Since program inception, the Section 1011 program has paid nearly $97 million directly to providers for eligible services. As of August 2006, more than 15,500 providers have enrolled across the United States .
CMS will host two provider outreach and education conferences during 2006. The Newark session is also available via teleconference. The conferences will be held:
September 26 El Paso , Texas 8:30AM to 12:30 PM
September 28 Newark , New Jersey 8:30AM to 12:30 PM
To register for either conference, visit the TrailBlazer Web site at https://www.trailblazerhealth.com/Section1011/CalendarOfEvents/ .
For more information on the Section 1011 program or to enroll, providers may contact TrailBlazer Health Enterprises, the national contractor for the program, at (866) 860-1011 or visit their Web site at https://www.trailblazerhealth.com/Section1011/ .
Please Donate Raffle Prizes for AMBUPAC
Tomorrow,
Thursday, September 21st is the deadline to support your AMBUPAC and AAA's government affairs efforts by donating a prize for the AMBUPAC Raffle at our Annual Meeting on October 6th, 2006.
Please help us by filling out this form and donating today!
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