CMS Revises Nursing Facility Advanced Beneficiary Notice of Non-Coverage
On Thurs., Feb. 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it is releasing a newly revised Skilled Nursing Facility Advanced Beneficiary Notice of Non-Coverage (SNFABN) along with newly developed, concise, and separate instructions for form completion. The revised SNFABN has the requirements from the denial letters and looks very similar to the ABN with three different options.
The five SNF denial letters and the Notice of Exclusion from Medicare Benefits – Skilled Nursing Facility (NEMB-SNF) will be discontinued.
Since the NEMB-SNF was used as a voluntary notice for care that is never covered by Medicare, LeadingAge NY will continue to encourage SNFs to issue the revised SNFABN in this voluntary capacity. Revisions to Chapter 30, Section 70 of the Medicare Claims Processing Manual are forthcoming.
The revised SNFABN will be mandatory for use on May 7, 2018. In the interim, SNFs may continue to use the old version of the SNFABN, the denial letters, or the NEMB-SNF; however, it is recommended that the revised SNFABN be used as soon as possible. The revised SNFABN and the form instructions may be located here and here.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841