With three days left until the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Skilled Nursing Facility PPS rule goes into effect, one long-term care expert cautioned providers to go over their October billing with a fine-tooth comb.
 
“We’re not only dealing with the clinical database but are really dealing with a lot of data that is going to have an impact on payment,” Alliance Training Center Executive Director Leah Klusch, RN, BSN, told McKnight’s Editorial Director John O’Connor at the 62nd American Health Care Association show in Las Vegas. “You have to be sure that your processes, your billing and your assessment processes, are very clean and that you’ve done the training that is necessary for these changes.”
 
CMS has amped up its anti-fraud division and is taking a hard line on providers who bill incorrectly.
 
“CMS has been very absolute about the determinations of compliance and also the quality of the database. There is a no forgiveness policy. Facilities need to be very careful, especially in their October billing cycle, that they have all hands on deck,” Klusch said.
 
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