As this issue went to press, the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had informed the organization that the new ABN form — which was due to be implemented on Sept. 1, 2008 — will now be mandatory starting on March 1, 2009.
The new version of the form — CMS-R-131 — is called the Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage, and is designed to, among other things, give Medicare beneficiaries the option of paying out of pocket for DME without having to file a Medicare claim.
The new form had been available since spring, but its use was not mandatory until Sept. 1. Now that date has been extended six months, says AAHomecare.
At press time, CMS had not released any additional information, but told AAHomecare that it planned to very soon.
