Even if your Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) is NOT Noridian or WPS, believe me you want to pay attention to their wound care or dressing policies because the MACs tend to collaborate (even unofficially) on these policies. When there’s a mistake in the wound care policy of one MAC, we tend to see that same problem show up in the others. (I wish the good parts of policies tended to show up in multiple jurisdictions, but I haven’t seen that.)
Remember that the MAC Local Coverage Determinations (LCDs) represent the “fine print” around which Medicare audits are focused. If you want to know what the “next issue” will be in terms of Medicare audits, keep an eye on the various MAC LCDs.
Noridian Holds an Open Meeting about its new Wound Care LCD
You have the chance to see what’s coming down the LCD train track on February 24 at the Open Meeting for the Noridian wound care LCD. To participate, follow this link.
Last week, Noridian posted a proposed Local Coverage Determination (LCD) on Wound Care. Comments will be accepted until 3/15/2021. The proposed Noridian LCD is available at this link.
A draft article is available at this link.
While this policy is officially applicable to the Noridian J-E jurisdiction, Noridian has proposed that it apply to the J-F jurisdiction as well. Whether the J-F jurisdiction will be impacted is a question that will be addressed in the open meeting on 2/24 so if you are in the Noridian JF region and are worried about this policy, you have a chance to express your concerns.
WPS Revises Wound Care LCD
WPS also issued a revised version of its Wound Care LCD.
The Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders has got your back when it comes to these policy issues. If you want to follow the work of the Alliance, you can do so on the Alliance website.
–Caroline
Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving patient outcomes through quality driven care. Please visit my blog at CarolineFifeMD.com and my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/carolinefifemd/videos
The opinions, comments, and content expressed or implied in my statements are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of Intellicure or any of the boards on which I serve.
