The following information is provided by Novitas Solutions.
Medicare News
Informational Alert
Common Working File (CWF) Hosts will be Conducting History Purges
- On Saturday, May 3, 2014, the CWF Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Great Western Hosts will be conducting a history purge.
- On Saturday, May 10, 2014, the CWF Southeast, South, and Pacific Hosts will be conducting a history purge.
- On Saturday, May 17, 2014, the CWF Northeast, Great Lakes, and Keystone Hosts will be conducting a history purge.
Due to the anticipated duration of this activity and to ensure the completion of weekly processing and scheduled data center maintenance, there will be a CWF Dark Day at those Hosts only on the Saturday specified for the purge.
This means there will be no access to the Health Insurance Master Record (HIMR) query, which is usually available until noon on Saturdays. All files received from satellites for each Fridays’ cycle will be completed prior to bringing CWF production down for those three weeks. If, for any reason, satellite files are received late Saturday morning, they will be processed by CWF after the history purge has been completed.
The oldest claim history maintained at all nine of the CWF Hosts, after the purge process will be as follows:
- Oldest Inpatient claim Thru Date to be kept on file is January 1, 1966
- Oldest Outpatient claim Thru Date to be kept on file is February 1, 2012 (27 months)
- Oldest Part B claim Thru Date to be kept on file is May 1, 2012 (24 months)
Proposed Changes to FYs 2016 and 2017 Hospital Wage Index Timeline – Important
On Wednesday, April 30, 2014, CMS issued the FY 2015 IPPS proposed rule which is available for download on the internet here. In that proposed rule (CMS-1607-P), CMS proposed significant changes to the FYs 2016 and FY 2017 Wage Index Development Timetables. We are alerting you to these proposed changes now, so that you may plan and comment on this proposal accordingly. The public comment period for the FY 2015 IPPS proposed rule closes by June 30, 2014. Comments may be submitted four different ways as indicated in the proposed rule. You may (and we encourage you to) submit electronic comments at http://www.regulations.gov by entering “CMS 1607” in the search box, and then clicking on “Comment Now”.
As in the FY 2015 IPPS proposed rule, we have pasted the proposed changes for FYs 2016 and 2017 in the tables below, side by side with the existing timetable, so that you may read the proposed changes in the context of the existing timetable. Under the proposed changes for FYs 2016 and 2017, although we are not providing exact dates for the FYs 2016 and 2017 wage index timetable, we note that, with every change listed below, we intend to provide hospitals and MACs with the same or somewhat more time than under the current timetable to complete reviews and request revisions. We note that some changes for FY 2016 are effective beginning in May 2014, which would give hospitals more time to review the preliminary FY 2016 wage index and occupational data. If finalized, these changes would be applicable to the FYs 2016 and 2017 wage index. Please also see attached Tentative FY 2016 Wage Index Timeline.
If you have any questions please contact one of the wage index coordinators (click, then scroll down).
2014 Medicare Symposium “Understand the Basics of the Medicare Program” Session Handout Updated
The 2014 Medicare Symposium session handout for “Understand the Basics of the Medicare Program” has been updated! If you have registered for this event, please take the time to review and print the updated handout.
Join us for our webinar “Part A Credit Balance”
We will describe the credit balance report, advise when and where to submit the credit balance report, and examine how to submit a voluntary refund.
Don’t miss this informative event! Register today!
Medicare Learning Network (MLN) Matters Articles from CMS
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