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The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will accept comments on the updated Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (MOON) and instructions through Sept. 1. The fiscal year 2017 inpatient prospective payment system final rule implemented the Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility (NOTICE) Act, which requires hospitals and critical access hospitals to provide written and oral notification to Medicare beneficiaries receiving observation services as outpatients for more than 24 hours. Under the final rule, the notification requirements will take effect no later than 90 calendar days after the updated MOON is approved by OMB. CHA will host a member forum on Aug. 23 from 10-11 a.m. (PT) to discuss the proposed notice and development of CHA’s comments. Registration is available at www.surveymonkey.com/r/MoonMemberForum; members must register by Aug. 19 at noon (PT).
The California state legislature is currently considering a related piece of legislation — SB 1076 (Hernandez, D-Azusa) — that requires notification of specified patients who are on observation status. The bill, as currently drafted, would require hospitals to provide a written notice to a patient who is on observation status and is receiving care in an inpatient unit of a hospital or in an observation unit, or following a change in a patient’s status from inpatient to observation, as soon as practicable. The notice must state that while on observation status, the patient’s care is being provided on an outpatient basis, which may affect his or her health care coverage reimbursement. If enacted, SB 1076’s provisions would take effect Jan. 1. CHA does not believe that this legislation, if enacted as written, would conflict with the federal regulatory requirements of the NOTICE Act as described above.
