Are we obligated to print our charges for equipment and services on the delivery ticket that we ask the patient to sign? OF COURSE, WE could ask the obvious question: When was the last time you signed for any service or product without knowing what you were being charged? The answer to the question is yes if you are an accredited company with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Standard RI.1.1.1 (under Rights and Ethics) specifically addresses this issue. The standard states that "the patient has the right to make informed decisions regarding care or services." When discussing the intent of the standard, JCAHO indicates that the organization must provide the patient with accurate written information regarding the costs, if any are to be borne by the individual (patient). While this cost could represent only the patient's co-payment obligation, the requirement that this notification be in written form would make the delivery ticket the most obvious means of communicating this responsibility.

How should I document financial hardship for Medicare Part B patients? MEDICARE PART B requires that a supplier make a genuine collection effort to obtain payment for the 20 percent portion Medicare does not pay. Actually, there are no Medicare rules regarding "hardship letters" because the Medicare program focuses on "genuine collection effort," rather than a letter that probably pre-empted the collection effort altogether. There are always a small number of cases where the information you are given about patients when you initially admit them into your service tells you that they will be unable to pay their co-insurance. The larger number of patients are those where you don't know if they will have a hardship until you bill them. Medicare encourages a routine and consistent process that involves the issuance of a bill, follow up on that bill and an even-handed collections approach for all types of patients.

Why is my claim for test strips denied as a "too many services billed" 518 denial? THE CORRECT NUMBER of units that should be billed is one unit if you received 50 test strips or two units if you received 100 strips. If a beneficiary meets the coverage criteria, we will allow 100 strips per month.