Beginning Sept. 1, If a Medicare patient has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and is admitted to a hospital, the hospital payment is increased by 20% to reflect the additional costs of treating COVID patients, according to an announcement from CMS.
As part of this move, CMS will require a positive COVID-19 lab test result is documented in the patient’s medical record. If a positive test result is not found in the medical record during post-payment review, the increased payment will be recouped.
The additional payment is intended to help hospitals offset the cost of treating patients who have COVID-19, including the purchase of necessary supplies.
This means it’s important to closely monitor your Medicare payments for COVID-19 patients moving forward, as CMS and other payers have in some cases struggled during the public health emergency to apply statutory cost-sharing measures.