Determining Covered/Noncovered Days and Charges

The CMS must record a day or charge as either covered or noncovered because of the following:

Beneficiary utilization is recorded based upon days during which the patient received hospital or SNF accommodations, including days paid by Medicare and days for which the provider was held liable for reasons other than medical necessity or custodial care. Days denied as not medically necessary or as custodial care are not charged against a beneficiary's utilization record when the provider is determined to be liable.

The provider may claim credit on its cost report only for covered accommodations, days and charges for which actual payment is made, i.e., provider liable days and charges are not included. Data from the bill payment process are used in preparing the cost report. 

The number of days and charges provided to the Pricer program affects the day and cost outlier determinations and the DRG payment amount. Non-PPS provider days are excluded from Pricer consideration. 

It is possible to use a different number of days on a single bill for each of the above purposes, although the same number of days will generally apply in actual practice. For example, if the beneficiary had at least 1 day of eligibility remaining at admission, days that occur after benefits are exhausted up through the day outlier threshold for the applicable DRG are counted for cost reporting purposes under IPPS 

A. - General Rule on Counting of Days

These following are general rules for counting days. However, these rules are also subject to special rules for determining day of admission, discharge, death, beginning a leave of absence, same day transfer, guarantee of payment days, provider liability issues and outlier days for PPS outliers. See §40.1 and §40.1.G for an explanation of these special rules.

The provider calculates and enters on the bill the number of claimable Medicare patient days on the cost report. (Medicare patient days always refer to cost report days.) For PPS facilities the A/B MAC (A) counts, for the cost report, utilization and Pricer purposes, all days for which Part A payment may be made to the hospital. This includes days for which the provider is not liable under the limitation of liability provision. It does not count days for which no Part A payment may be made for cost report, utilization or Pricer purposes. 

For non-PPS providers, the A/B MAC (A) does not count the days for Pricer purposes, because DRG payment or outlier calculations are not made.

B. - Medically Unnecessary Days for Which the Provider May Charge the Beneficiary

Days on which the hospital furnished no covered Part A services are not charged to utilization and are not counted as Medicare patient days. 

If the hospital or SNF stay includes any medically unnecessary days for which the provider has met the requirements of §§40.2.2 C or D for charging the beneficiary, the A/B MAC (A) counts those days as noncovered under Part A for cost report, utilization and Pricer purposes.

Since the provider may not be aware of the date benefits are exhausted or when the outlier threshold is reached, the A/B MAC (A) verifies the provider's counts. If, for any reason, the A/B MAC (A) or the QIO determines fewer days are claimable (e.g., if the A/B MAC (A) or the QIO indicates that benefits are exhausted), the A/B MAC (A) will adjust cost report days for its PS&R system. If the A/B MAC (A) or the QIO determines fewer days are claimable for the cost report, it determines the proper number of days of utilization to charge the beneficiary and the proper number of days for the length of stay used by Pricer. It uses the factors in §40.1 and §40.1G to make these calculations.