Home Healthcare Billing

Home healthcare is defined by the Center of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as limited, part-time, or intermittent skilled nursing care and home health aide services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, medical social services, durable medical equipment (such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen, and walkers), medical supplies, and other services. And as America's population ages, this particular division of the healthcare industry is expected to see continued growth. As a matter of fact, the Bureau of Labor statistics projects the number of home healthcare jobs to increase 80 percent by 2008.

In order to keep up with this explosive growth, a number of home healthcare providers are opting to outsource their billing to services that specialize in preparing and submitting healthcare claims. As their title implies, home healthcare providers primarily care for their patients in the patients' homes and these homebound patients are typically elderly or disabled. Therefore, when selecting a home healthcare billing service, the provider should be absolutely certain that the service is familiar with filing claims according to all the Medicare guidelines, as many of their patients will qualify for this program.

Forms to File

In particular, the home healthcare billing service should know how to prepare and submit billing form UB92. This form was developed by the National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC), and is the electronic equivalent of the CMS-1450 paper claim form. Prior to receiving any Medicare reimbursement, all providers are required to submit this form.

Additionally, form CMS- 1500 needs filing. This form is to be used by non-institutional providers to submit claims to Medicare. This form is also commonly referred to as HCFA-1500, as the CMS was previously named the Health Care Financing Administration. For those who have home billing jobs, having the right software to check for compliancy can prevent any mishaps or mistakes.