Medicare Payment Fiasco - Sound Familiar?

If you are receiving Medicare paid supplies AND you have a Home Health provider, or recently entered a hospital or nursing home, or have a service provider coming to your home, this may change how your benefits get paid.

Medicare requires a combined billing of Medicare paid services and supplies. Meaning, they wont allow multiple companies to bill them for the same patient, for supplies or services on the same day, because that has led to over-ordering, overpayment and ultimately fraud of the Medicare system.

Simply put, multiple providers cannot bill Medicare for the same dates of service.

Example: If you are an ostomy patient and you recently added a home physical therapists services to your care, the physical therapist must provide you with your ostomy supplies and bill Medicare for those supplies.

The best thing to do is let all medical personnel and medical suppliers know if you have recently added new home providers or have entered a hospital or nursing home. Together, they should make sure your billing is done correctly to avoid you having to pay for anything out of pocket.