4. Enhancing claims management
In addition to ensuring that each patient gets appropriate and timely care, case managers also must ensure that any patient's hospital stay, or any part of that stay, is medically necessary, delivered in the most appropriate setting and is not custodial in nature.
If CMS, the state Medicaid program or a private health plan decides a patient's stay is not medically necessary, the hospital or health system can lose thousands of dollars in reimbursement. In addition, when a patient learns that Medicare, Medicaid or a commercial insurer has declined to pay for hospital care, such news is likely to be particularly troubling for patients and family members and almost certainly will result in a negative patient experience. Given CMS' emphasis on patient experience, hospitals don't want negative reports on patient surveys.
In most hospitals, it is the case manager's responsibility to notify the patient about insurers' decisions regarding medical necessity and ensure that the patient receives a Hospital-Issued Notice of Noncoverage. Then, the case manager advocates on the patient's behalf to get the insurer to reverse its decision, if possible.