Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Plus: Medicare carriers find quick fix for wrongly rejected physician service claims submitted for hospice care. CMS wants to get a handle on the number of Medicare patients that are readmitted to hospitals following discharge -- and has chosen 14 communities that will serve as models for new approaches to this growing problem. "Our data show that nearly one in five patients who leave the hospital today will be readmitted within the next month, and that more than three quarters of these readmissions are potentially preventable," revealed Charlene Frizzera, CMS' acting administrator, in an April 13 statement. To cut down on the readmissions, CMS established 14 regions where it will test a new Care Transitions Project. The aim of the project is to use community resources that work together to help patients achieve more seamless transitions following hospital discharge. To read more about the project, visit www.cfmc.org/caretransitions.