A Notice of Admission (NOA) error involving previous discharges that was thought to be fixed is continuing to cause trouble for home health agencies, according to an alert from Medicare Administrative Contractors NGS and Palmetto GBA.
In an urgent notice to providers April 13, 2022, NGS noted that an issue in the Common Working File was continuing to fail to recognize discharges (patient status other than 30 on the last home health period).
“Providers are advised to routinely verify billing before submitting a new NOA for a beneficiary admission,” NGS instructs providers. “Until the issue is fixed, providers should not resubmit those NOAs that have been incorrectly returned to provider with U537F.”
NGS had previously announced that a fix was expected to be in place in early April to allow for these claims to be processed correctly. Now, there is no timeline and no workaround.
Palmetto GBA also informed providers this week that the issue had been “reopened.” The MAC adds a note that some NOAs that had previously incorrectly returned for U537F may have had the NOAs approve/process since.
“If an NOA is late due to this issue, request a late NOA exception by adding modifier KX to the HIPPS codes on the 0023 revenue line and indicate the following in the remarks field on the claim(s): 2022 NOA REASON CODE U537F ISSUE,” Palmetto instructed. “If an exception is not requested on the claim, the claim may edit for RC 37364.”
All MACs instruct providers to make sure U537F was an error. It is assigned correctly when there is a duplicate NOA for the same admission period or there is an open admission period on file from a different home health agency.
Get the latest on NOA issues from each MAC: