Billing - General
How to Improve Your Hospice Revenue Cycle: 7 Key Questions
Our previous installments, Strategic Hospice Revenue Cycle Management and Hospice Billing: How to Build a Clean-Claim Process, established that a healthy revenue cycle is the engine that allows an agency to maintain stability and focus on its clinical mission. However, hospice leadership typically f
March 16, 2026 · 7 min read
Hospice Billing: How to Build a Clean-Claim Process
In our first installment on Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) – Silent Killers of Hospice Cash Flow (and How to Fix Them) – we discussed why consistent working capital is the foundation of an agency's operational stability. It impacts staffing levels, vendor relationships, and the leadership’s ability
March 15, 2026 · 5 min read
Silent Killers of Hospice Cash Flow (and How to Fix Them)
No hospice leader enters this field because they love claims and remittances. Their focus is not hospice cash flow optimization. Hospice leadership's goal is to ensure a dignified end-of-life journey for patients and families. They work to build an organization that can reliably deliver compassionat
March 15, 2026 · 5 min read
How to Master the Hospice CBR for Better Compliance
Many hospice administrators are familiar with the hospice PEPPER report. A smaller number of hospice leaders, however, are familiar with its counterpart: the Comparative Billing Report (CBR) and eCBR, the electronic version of the Comparative Billing Report. While the PEPPER provides a general overv
February 1, 2026 · 6 min read
Government Audits: Extrapolation and its Financial Impact
Hospice agencies are under increasing scrutiny by government auditors. A particularly concerning and financially devastating aspect of government audits is the use of statistical extrapolation. Understanding the extrapolation process is essential for providers to safeguard the financial healthof the
June 30, 2025 · 4 min read
Tips for avoiding hospice election form denials
What is a hospice election statement? A hospice election statement is a condition of payment under Medicare. For a patient to be eligible to receive hospice services under the Medicare benefit, the patient or the patient's authorized representative must elect hospice care by signing a hospice electi
October 18, 2022 · 3 min read
What is the Hospice Election Statement requirement?
To receive hospice services under the Medicare benefit, a patient or his authorized representative must elect hospice care. If the patient or authorized representative elects to receive hospice care, the patient must file an election statement with a specific hospice agency. The election statement s
October 18, 2022 · 3 min read
Medicare Credit Balance Report
What is Medicare credit balance? A Medicare credit balance represents a Medicare overpayment to a provider due to patient billing error or claims processing error that must be refunded to Medicare. The report is referred to as a Credit Balance Report because when a provider receives excess payment
September 29, 2022 · 3 min read
Untimely NOE: Requesting an Exception
September 20, 2022 · 1 min read
Hospice Acronym Alphabet Soup
Are you confused by the Acronym Alphabet Soup? Does the never ending list of acronyms used in the hospice and healthcare industry leave you confused? Are you worried that you may confuse CMN with CMP? To help sort out the confusion, we add here links to lists of acronyms: Acronyms commonly found on
September 15, 2022 · 1 min read
Timely filing of Notice of Election
The Notice of Election (NOE) is more than a clinical administrative task; it is a critical financial trigger. In the hospice revenue cycle, the NOE serves as the formal notification to Medicare that an agency has assumed responsibility for a patient’s care. Failure to file this document within the m
September 12, 2022 · 2 min read
What is a MAC?
A Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) is a private health care insurer that has been awarded a geographic jurisdiction to process Medicare Part A and Part B medical claims for Fee For Service (FFS) beneficiaries. CMS relies on these contractors to serve as the primary operational contact betwee
September 12, 2022 · 2 min read
How to Submit a Notice of Election (NOE)
What is a Notice of Election? When a Medicare beneficiary elects hospice services, the hospice must complete an election notice with the beneficiary and file a Notice of Election (NOE) with Medicare. A Notice of Election (NOE) is the formal mechanism used to notify Medicare that a beneficiary has e
September 8, 2022 · 2 min read
Unusual Circumstances: Face to Face Encounters
Prior to the third hospice benefit period, and prior to each subsequent benefit period, a hospice physician or nurse practitioner is required to have a face to face encounter with the hospice patient to recertify that the patient continues to be Medicare eligible for hospice benefits. The face to f
August 4, 2022 · 2 min read
What is Face to Face Recertification?
A hospice face to face encounter is a step in patient recertification beginning with the third benefit period and each benefit period thereafter. The goal of hospice face to face patient encounter is to encourage greater involvement of the physician in the care of patients who have been on hospice f
August 4, 2022 · 3 min read
Accounts Receivable by Payer
Who are Hospice Agency Payers? A payer is the company of government agency that pays the provider, i.e., the hospice agency, for the medical service that is administered to the patient. For most hospice agencies, Medicare is the primary payer for hospice services. See, for example, this study publis
July 25, 2022 · 2 min read
Aging Accounts Receivable
What is Aging Accounts Receivable? The age of accounts receivable (AR) is the time that has elapsed from the time the agency delivered the service to the patient until current date. Aging AR is typically grouped into monthly buckets (e.g., 0-30 days, 31-60 days, etc.). Total dollar value of outstand
July 25, 2022 · 2 min read
