Understanding and Addressing Medicare Error Code 17729 Denials in Hospice Care

Several hospice agencies have reported erroneous claim denials under Medicare error code 17729. This issue is affecting claims related to specific physicians, where claims process smoothly if the certifying physician’s SOC date is prior to June. However, claims with SOC dates in June and onward are being denied even after meticulous verification of the physician’s PECOS records, which show no status changes for these physicians.

These ongoing denials have had a significant impact, leading to an increased volume of accounts receivable (AR) and posing financial and operational challenges for affected hospice agencies. In response to these reports, Medicare announced the implementation of a corrective fix and has since reopened claims that were denied before this fix date, July 13, 2024.

Medicare has clarified that any remaining denials after the fix are considered accurate. However, some agencies have observed denials after July 13, raising questions about whether these are genuine errors. Agencies encountering further denials related to error code 17729 are advised to report them directly to the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) by emailing Katie@nahc.org. To ensure data privacy, agencies should include only the Document Control Number (DCN) associated with the denied claim.

Key Takeaways for Hospice Agencies:

• Triple-check the physician name and SOC dates when reviewing claims to avoid common causes of error code 17729.
• Note that denials received after July 13, 2024, may still be subject to review by Medicare, pending any additional corrective action.
• Reach out to NAHC with only the claim DCN to expedite the review process for potentially erroneous denials.

Keeping a close watch on these denials and promptly reporting any continued errors can help agencies mitigate AR backlogs and maintain smoother claims processing moving forward.