The first week of this month also marks the first week of fiscal 2013. As a result, Oct. 1 saw the kickoff for several new CMS requirements.

Review the list and make sure you're ready for the following:

  • Hospital readmission penalties.  The penalties will be applied for the first time to payments in fiscal 2013, which began Oct. 1. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) estimates that some 67% of hospitals will face penalties, with an average penalty amount of $125,000 per affected hospital (HHL 10/08/12).
  • Hospice quality reporting. Data collection for both the comfortable dying quality measure and the quality assessment and performance improvement (QAPI) structural measure begins Oct. 1 and ends Dec. 31. For the comfortable dying measure, all eligible admissions during the data collection period are counted. For the QAPI measure, only patient care-centered measures you were tracking during this period may be listed on the quality reporting form (HHL 9/17/12).
  • Hospice wage index. Oct. 1 also marks the start of the 2013 wage index. Not only will 2013 rates now apply, but the requirement to report all diagnoses relating to the terminal condition on claims also will kick in. Experts believe this change may make it easier for auditors to determine which hospice services don't relate to the terminal diagnosis (HHL 7/30/12).