Furnishing Services that are Subject to SNF Consolidated Billing

10.4 - Furnishing Services that are Subject to SNF Consolidated Billing Under an “Arrangement” With an Outside Entity (Rev .4001, Issued: 03-16-18, Effective: 06- 19- 18, Implementation: 06-19-18) As discussed in §10.1 and §10.3, the SNF consolidated billing provisions (at §1862(a)(18), §1866(a)(1)(H)(ii), and §1888(e)(2)(A) of the Act) place with the SNF itself the Medicare billing responsibility for most of its residents’ services. “Part A” consolidated billing requires that a SNF must include on its Part A bill almost all of the services that a resident receives during the course of a Medicare-covered stay, other than those services that are specifically excluded from the SNF’s global PPS per diem payment for the covered stay. (These “excluded” services, such as the services of physicians and certain other practitioners, remain separately billable to the A/B MAC (B) directly by the outside entity that actually furnishes them.) In addition, “Part B” consolidated billing makes the SNF itself responsible for submitting the Part B bills for any physical therapy, occupational therapy, and/or speech-language pathology services that a resident receives during a noncovered stay (see §20.5). Further, for any Part A or Part B service that is subject to SNF consolidated billing, the SNF must either furnish the service directly with its own resources, or obtain the service from an outside entity (such as a supplier) under an “arrangement,” as described in §1861(w) of the Act and in §80.5. Under such an arrangement, the SNF must reimburse the outside entity for those Medicare-covered services that are subject to consolidated billing; i.e., services that are reimbursable only to the SNF as part of its global PPS per diem or those Part B services that must be billed by the SNF. Since the inception of the SNF PPS, several problematic situations have been identified where the SNF resident receives services that are subject to consolidated billing from an outside entity, such as a supplier. (In this context, the term “supplier” can also include those practitioners who, in addition to performing their separately billable professional services, essentially act as a supplier by also furnishing other services that are subject to the consolidated billing requirement.) As discussed in greater detail below, such situations most commonly arise in one of the following two scenarios: 1) A SNF does not accurately identify services as being subject to consolidated billing when ordering such services from a supplier or practitioner; or 2) A supplier fails to ascertain a beneficiary’s status as a SNF resident when the beneficiary (or another individual acting on the beneficiary’s behalf) seeks to obtain such services directly from the supplier without the SNF’s knowledge. The absence of a valid arrangement in the situations described above creates confusion and friction between SNFs and their suppliers. Suppliers need to understand which services are subject to consolidated billing to avoid situations where they might improperly attempt to bill the A/B MAC (B) (or other payers such as Medicaid and beneficiaries) directly for the services. In addition, when ordering or furnishing services “under arrangements,” both parties need to reach a common understanding on the terms of payment; e.g., how to submit an invoice, how payment rates will be determined, and the turn-around time between billing and payment. Without this understanding, it may become difficult to maintain the strong relationships between SNFs and their suppliers that are necessary to ensure proper coordination of care to the Medicare beneficiaries. Whenever possible, SNFs should document arrangements with suppliers in writing, particularly with suppliers furnishing services on an ongoing basis, such as laboratories, x-ray suppliers, and pharmacies. This also enables the SNF to obtain the supplier’s assurance that the arranged-for services will meet accepted standards of quality (under the regulations at 42 CFR 483.70(g)(2), SNFs must ensure that services obtained under an arrangement with an outside source meet professional standards and principles that apply to professionals providing such services). However, it is important to note that the absence of a valid arrangement does NOT invalidate the SNF’s responsibility to reimburse suppliers for services included in the SNF “bundle” of services represented by the SNF PPS global per diem rate. As the SNF has already been paid for the services, the SNF must be considered the responsible party when medically necessary supplier services are furnished to beneficiaries in Medicare Part A stays. This obligation applies even in cases where the SNF did not specifically order the service; e.g., during a scheduled physician’s visit, the physician performs additional diagnostic tests that had not been ordered by the SNF; a family member arranges a physician visit without the knowledge of SNF staff and the physician bills the SNF for “incident to” services. Finally, while establishing a valid arrangement prior to ordering services from a supplier minimizes the likelihood of a payment dispute between the parties, it is not unreasonable to expect occasional disagreements between the parties that may result in non-payment of a supplier claim. However, it is important to note that there are potentially adverse consequences to SNFs when patterns of such denials are identified. Specifically, all participating SNFs agree to comply with program regulations when entering into a Medicare provider agreement which, as explained below, requires a SNF to have a valid arrangement in place whenever a resident receives services that are subject to consolidated billing from any entity other than the SNF itself. Moreover, in receiving a bundled per diem payment under the SNF PPS that includes such services, the SNF is accepting Medicare payment, and financial responsibility, for the service. Accordingly, these instructions reiterate and clarify the applicable consolidated billing requirements that pertain to SNFs and to the outside suppliers that serve SNF residents.