Home Health & Hospice Week

But you may not want to rush the application, experts warn.

You have a year to apply for a National Provider Identifier, but don't let that lull you into missing the deadline.

Medicare started accepting NPI applications in May and will accept NPIs starting in January, as long as they're accompanied by existing Medicare numbers.

Alert: From October 2006 to May 2007, Med-icare will accept either NPIs or Medicare numbers - but as of May 23, 2007, Medicare will accept only NPIs.

All health care providers including home health agencies, hospices and durable medical equipment suppliers must obtain an NPI.

Some experts advise that you wait at least until September or October this year to apply for an NPI. Although the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services web portal is simple to use and relatively straightforward, it may still have some glitches.

If you enter your information into the online form and it isn't working well, you could be dealing with miscues for months, worries consultant Rob Levin with Billing Solutions in Philadelphia. He plans to wait another month before applying on behalf of his clients.

But don't wait too long. Any kind of enrollment application can take longer than you expect, and you don't want to get caught in the crush. Next June, a new crop of medical, dental, pharmacy, etc. grads will burst onto the scene, and they'll all be applying for NPIs.

Graduating students will start to apply for numbers in May, and Medicare often is backed up for four or five months after that, says consultant Jill Young with Young Medical in East Lansing, MI. By the time that bottleneck clears up, everyone who waited will be applying, causing more delays,Young predicts.  A federal judge has given Missouri the OK to quit paying for most durable medical equipment used by adult Medicaid recipients.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple last week declined to grant a temporary restraining order requested by disabled people and advocacy groups that have sued the state over the Medicaid cuts, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. This month the state dropped coverage for equipment such as hospital beds, wheelchair batteries, feeding tubes and walkers for adults on Medicaid unless they are pregnant, blind or in nursing homes.

A federal lawsuit filed Aug. 29 charges that the state's decision to stop paying for some beneficiaries' equipment is illegal. The state defends the move as financially necessary and says beneficiaries can apply for an exception if they need the equipment to survive.
  Skyrocketing gas prices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are hitting home care providers squarely in their wallets. Geri Bast, a home health aide for Fairview Home Care and Hospice in Minneapolis, has to fill up her tank about three times a week for [...]