CMS webinar tomorrow on Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a Feb. 7 webinar on the Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice. To register for the webinar, which begins at 2:30 p.m. ET, click here. CMS recently updated its Medicare claims processing manual to include guidance on implementing the MOON, a standard notice that all hospitals and critical access hospitals must provide effective March 8 to all Medicare beneficiaries who receive outpatient observation services for more than 24 hours. Under the Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility Act of 2015, hospitals must provide oral and written notice to beneficiaries within 36 hours after observation services are initiated, or sooner if the individual is transferred, discharged or admitted as an inpatient. The notice informs them that they are an outpatient receiving observation services, not an inpatient, and the associated implications for cost-sharing and eligibility for Medicare coverage of skilled nursing facility services.