While many people think Medicare prohibits charging for routinely used supplies and equipment, according to HealthShare/THA endorsed company Financial Review Services, there is no such prohibition about what is charged as ancillary services. FRS asked for clarification from Medicare, and received this response: “it is within the purview of the provider to establish its own charge structure and one would expect that the provider bills all insurers according to its charge structure. CMS does not prescribe or regulate what is included on the hospital’s itemized statement. The agency would expect the charges to be valid and records available to support what is billed to the Medicare program.” Under guidelines on how charges are billed on the UB-92 claim form, for example, operating room instruments and equipment could be detailed on an itemized statement and should be aggregated into the total for OR services under the proper revenue code. The same would go for surgery packs and other supplies. Want more information? Contact Michael Lewis at 713/850-7456 or call us at 800/252-9404.

Manage Documents

Vsurvey from Verge Solutions can help your hospital manage documents. First, the system creates customized document categories - such as consents, medical staff rules and regulations, policies, meeting minutes, and organization charts - then builds a record page for each document. Your hospital can run reports showing which documents need updating, export all information to PDFs for printing or mailing, review historical records for updating, locate documents in one place, and send instructions to other users if action is required for any document. You’ll be able to clearly see the relationship between documents and Joint Commission standards as well. For more information call Barbara Norman at 408/227-1314.