Administrative Memos

200604

FROM: Theodore O. Will, Chief Executive Officer
DATE: Sep 28, 2006
SUBJECT: Long-Term Acute-Care Hospital: Reduce Medicare Payment Errors and Enhance Your Compliance Efforts
IPRO CONTACTS:

Andrea Goldstein, Vice President, Medicare/Federal Health Care Assessment at 516-209-5364

IPRO has been requested to share the following invitation/information as the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for New York State.

TMF Health Quality Institute under contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as the Hospital Payment Monitoring Program (HPMP) Quality Improvement Organization Support Center (QIOSC) is inviting Long-Term, Acute-Care Hospitals (LTCHs) to participate in a unique conference call to discuss how LTCHs and Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), such as IPRO, can work together to measure, monitor, and reduce inpatient Medicare fee-for-service payment errors.

This conference call will be held on Tuesday, October 17, 2006, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time and is intended to provide an opportunity for LTCHs to:

• Learn about the QIO program and the QIOs' work with LTCHs related to case review and the national Hospital Payment Monitoring Program (HPMP)
• Gain knowledge of comparative data that can help LTCHs' compliance, auditing and monitoring efforts
• Ask questions of representatives from the QIOs and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

IPRO, as the New York QIO, under contract with CMS, is required to monitor the appropriateness of admission and diagnosis-related group assignments for LTCHs as part of HPMP. Through HPMP, IPRO may conduct focused interventions involving LTCHs with the goal of identifying and preventing payment errors. IPRO can provide assistance, tools and comparative data to LTCHs in support of this goal. Please note that QIOs are not responsible for payment or billing issues and therefore IPRO is unable to respond to questions related to these topics.

To become familiar with IPRO and HPMP prior to this call the following resources are available:

• www.ipro.org - provides information about IPRO and NY State specific HPMP activities
• www.hpmpresources.org - provides information about HPMP

To RSVP for this call, please visit www.HPMPResources.org and click on the "Events" link. Registrants will receive an automatic e-mail confirmation that includes the dial-in information. For those without Internet access, please call Michael Gottschall (TMF Health Quality Institute) at 512-334-1639.