3/19/2024 J6/JK Hospice POE Advisory Group Meeting
Meeting Minutes
Meeting Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
Member Attendees: Kenneth Allen, Ashley Arnold, Mildred Anderson, Phill Alhir, Stephanie Balsz, Dawn Beck, , Kim Bischel, Dave Blomquist, Vickie K Brand, Rebecca Burnett, Caren Chalfant, Jeanne Chirico, Sheila Clark, Simona Cocea, Pat Conole, Vicki Cordi, Anne Cowles, Jamie Cyr, Kim Dallaire, Craig Devoe, Sharon Fries, Nancy Grissom, Leah G Gordon, Barb Hansen, Tina Krajnikovich, Stephanie Lee, Karen Madrid, Edward Martin, Mindy A. Martinez, Editha Mallari, Susan D Mattera, JuliAnna Meyer, Christine McMichael, Jill Nance, Sandra Pappas – Aria, Colleen Pierro, Lisa Reichert, Mary Jane Ruppert, Beth Slepian, Jennifer Stark, Kerry Stevenson, Lydia Thangaiyan, Kevin Tutunjian, Narine Vardanyan, Katie Wehri, Beth Werner, Patricia Whitman, Tracy Wodatch, Maureen Wolf
National Government Services Associates: Charity Bright, Alicia Forbes, Emily Fox-Squairs, Erin Musumeci, Christa Shipman
Agenda
- Welcome
- PEX Updates
- Completed and Upcoming Education
- NGSConnex Updates
- 2024 Education Discussion
- Updates/Reminders
I. Welcome
Erin Musumeci/Emily Fox-Squairs, NGS
Erin welcomed and thanked all returning and new members to the meeting. There are twenty-eight new Hospice POE AG members in attendance today, it is exciting to see all the new faces, especially those joining via video so we can put faces to the names. Emily echoed that sentiment and introduced herself as the manager of Part A and HH+H POE and reminded everyone the purpose of the POE AG is to help us develop education and provide feedback from the provider perspective to enhance our educational offerings. Emily explained that we need our POE AG members to be the eyes and ears of the provider community and help us develop and shape our education to help better serve our provider community to be able to give them the education they need. She also explained the difference between our POE AGs and Stakeholder groups. Emily gave a brief description of what to expect during this first meeting in comparison to our next in-person POE AG meeting in June where the consultants will have draft education for the group to review and be able to provide feedback on. Erin reviewed the agenda for the meeting and provided a brief description of how to use the Microsoft Teams tool bar during the meeting to type questions, raise a hand to speak as well as mute/unmute to speak. All members were encouraged to join in and provide feedback as our goal is for this to be a positive, and productive discussion. The meeting was then turned over to Alicia Forbes to provide the PEX Updates.
II. PEX Updates
Alicia Forbes, NGS
We are always looking for and appreciate feedback from our providers. Your ideas and recommendations help drive improvements to our website.
Providers suggested that we display the events in a list and show more on the same page. We listened and are excited to share that we have implemented these changes. Now you will see more events at a glance making it easier to plan ahead.
On the events page you have the option to search events by:
- Keyword (e.g., NGSConnex, enrollment, revalidation)
- Date range (from date and to date)
- Current and Past Events
Events are now displayed in a list and show more on the same page. Here you can obtain handouts and register for the event.
Meaning of the icons:
- Handout available
- Waiting for handout to be posted
- No handout will be given for this event.
To display more information on the event, select the dropdown navigation arrow.
Member Questions:
Question: Anyone making a referral for Hospice, now must be PECOS enrolled, do any of these events or publications speak to that?
Answer: No, all the examples provided during this update were related to Provider Enrollment/PECOS education and were only used as the example to search on the new Events page of our website. However, to address the question specifically regarding the new requirements of the Hospice Certifying Physician, NGS has been collaborating with the other two MACs and are in the final stage of production for an article which will be posted to our website very soon.
III. Completed and Upcoming Education
Erin Musumeci, NGS
Erin reviewed the completed education sessions and those coming up as well as our completed and upcoming podcast episodes since our last POE AG meeting. As a reminder, the links to the HH+H Podcasts on Apple and Spotify are under the Apps on our website. Erin opened the floor for feedback from members.
Provider Feedback regarding completed and upcoming education:
- Love the lunch & learn series, staff is getting a lot out of these, enjoy the Q&A and great discussion. Suggestion to continue with the Hospice Transfers.
- PECOS enrollment for hospices on May 1, suggestion to do a brief educational session on that topic.
- Request to provide an explanation on how to get general email blasts.
- Erin provided a step by step tutorial on how to Subscribe for Email Updates via our website. Also addressed new members who have not signed up for our Email Updates, the link to sign up on our website is at the top of the page once signed into the HH+H portal:
- Are there any plans for education for providers who deal with VBID claims on the billing side?
- Great suggestion, although CMS has announced this is scheduled to end, it is still active until 12/31/2024. POE has noted this and will work on getting education out. In the meantime, providers can check out the following article on the CMS website. The Future of the Hospice Benefit Component of the VBID Model.
- Not seeing podcasts announced on regular email blasts, only seeing education. Is there a way to get those on there? It would allow us as associations to help promote/share them with our members. Can there be a specific communication created so that associations can share that specifically with members to increase awareness?
- Yes, they are promoted through our email blasts, mobile messages, as well as our LinkedIn page. The group was also shown how to find the podcast QR codes via our search tool on the NGSMedicare website. We can also ask our Digital Content team to do some additional promotions to help increase our promotions. POE has it noted to develop a promo document with QR codes and imagery for our podcast, distribute to this AG so they can then share as well.
IV. NGSConnex Updates
Charity Bright, NGS
Charity shared a reminder that providers can get a copy of their 1099 tax form in NGSConnex under the Financials tab. The LSO for your agency has access to get a copy of the 1099 for 2023 and 2022 (if needed). She also reminded everyone that providers that there was additional functionality added to the system involving ADRs in the portal. You may now go in and view your ADR letter in its entirety, vs just the ADR text, if the ADR was issued on or after 8/15/2023. In reference to eligibility information, working on an update for hospice that is going into production on 4/6/2024; currently display up to fifty current occurrences of hospice information and NOEs. HETS is going to expand that and return up to 150 episodes of hospice as well as 150 NOEs. Charity opened the discussion for feedback and suggestions.
- With scanned VBID claims, continuing to show up in NGSConnex, even after calls to the J6 Case Management Team (CMT) and being told they are removed, multiple tickets have been opened due to this issue as well, and still not resolved. There are still three of seven remaining claims that will not go away.
- Wanting to know how to remove any claims in the Connex portal that are still showing up even though they no longer need to be addressed; currently with the way the functionality is set up, once a claim gets selected for additional documentation, it displays in that list indefinitely. The suggestion to have these removed will be taken back to the team. Charity encouraged provider to send in the details of the claims that remain showing to NGSHHHPOE@elevancehealth.com and the HH+H team will get it to Charity to research and follow up.
- Regarding the hospice eligibility, noticing the middle initial for some patients is not displayed in Connex following an eligibility check, but then the EMR system runs it through DDE and will see it there.
- NGS is dependent on what is returned to us by HETS, they do not always return with a middle initial and we can only display the info in the Connex portal that is provided to us. You may see it in the first section, the bene eligibility section.
If anyone has ideas for enhancements or improvements to NGSConnex, please share with us (NGSHHHPOE@elevancehealth.com) and we will share with Charity.
V. 2024 Education Discussion
All
Erin reminded the group of where to find our NGS Medicare YouTube videos, which have recently been updated with the latest Hospice Lunch & Learn and Let’s Chat billing series and categorized to find more easily. The Medicare University page from our website was also reviewed and a tutorial was provided on how to search the Course Catalog Tab for hospice self-paced learning modules that can be utilized by hospice agency staff for training, while noting that all these resources are free!
Erin thanked members for completing the educational survey that went out prior to this meeting. Some of the top results/requests for education were reviewed. The main theme taken from the survey was that there needs to be various forms of education, i.e., webinars, podcasts, job aids and on-demand videos. This supports POEs efforts to continue to develop education to suit all learning types. The results will be charted on the 2024 Hospice AG Recommendation Log.
VI. Updates/Reminders
All
The June POE AG is an in-person meeting and a wonderful opportunity to meet face-to-face, network, and join the conversation in a different setting. We would love to have a great turn-out for the June meeting – please consider joining us on June 12th!
The 2024 HH+H MAC Collaborative Summit will be at the Flamingo in Las Vegas again this year! The 2024 dates are October 2-4, with a chance to check in and get your pre-registration on 10/1/2024. The Summit is three days of education with speakers from all three HH+H MACs, as well as many other organizations such as CMS, the OIG, UPIC, beneficiary advocacy groups, and more. We will have registration open soon, so look for an announcement in our Email Updates and information on our website on how to register for the Summit. Please spread the word! We would love to have another sold-out event this year.
Erin reviewed that CMS has updated the Model Example of Hospice Election Statement and the Model Hospice Election Statement Addendum PDF forms this month. There was no formal announcement from CMS regarding this update. There have been no regulation changes to the language in the IOMs. The forms are available in the Downloads section at the bottom of the Hospice FFS page of the CMS website. All three HH+H MACs recently met and will be sending out a listserv to notify providers of the recent change. Following a side-by-side comparison, the forms were noted to only have a few minor changes.
- Suggestion to develop a check-off type of job aid for the Hospice Election forms.
Emily noted we recently published an article regarding the cyber attack and information on accelerated and advance payments for providers: Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption (CHOPD) Accelerated and Advance Payments for Part A Providers and Part B Suppliers Frequently Asked Questions.
As always, you are welcome and encouraged to send any ideas or topics for education to us as NGSHHHPOE@eleveancehealth.com.
Meeting adjourned
Posted 4/25/2024