HCFA has new Form 855
All new health care providers who want to enroll in the Medicare program will have to fill out a new form beginning this month.
The Baltimore-based Health Care Financing Administration is changing its Form 855 to standardize enrollment and to help government anti-fraud efforts. One feature of the new form is that a separate application must be submitted for each type of provider even if it is part of a larger organization. That means, for instance, that a health system’s hospital, home health operation, outpatient facility, and hospice all need to submit separate forms.
The form also expands the type of information that providers must certify as true. This includes a requirement that the provider is not under any sanctions or otherwise prohibited from taking part in the Medicare program.
Consumer brochure available
A new brochure that can be helpful in explaining the medical record to consumers is available from the Chicago-based American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).
The brochure, called Understanding Your Health Record, explains the contents of medical records, how to interpret them, why it’s important to understand them, and how to obtain them.
The brochure contains the explanations of documents common to most health records, such as lab reports, progress notes, imaging and X-ray reports; documents common to hospital stays or surgery, such as operative reports and discharge summaries; and definitions of medical terms, common prefixes, suffixes, root words, anatomical structures and common abbreviations. It also offers explanations of how consumers can obtain their medical records.
Individual brochures cost $1.75, which includes shipping and handling.
Volume discounts are available for orders of 10 or more. For more information or to place an order, contact AHIMA customer service at (800) 335-5535.
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