User Guide for the Cost Data Collection Instrument

Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection System A User Guide for the Data Collection Instrument

The ground ambulance cost data collection system obligates you to collect and report on a wide variety of data. Between 2020 and 2024 every ground ambulance service will be required to participate. Failure to comply will result in a 10% reduction to Medicare payments for a calendar year following the date which CMS determines your agency failed to report.

A System to Capture Data

In order to report data correctly, the data must be tracked according to the definitions and rules laid out by CMS. This means assessing your current accounting and data management practices and identifying the extent to which they do or do not enable you to track the data as required. As we work through the various data points in this guide, we need to remember that there are a wide range of EMS agency types. Some are nonaffiliated, some fire-based, others hospital-based, some exclusively provide non-emergency services, and so on. Considering this, CMS will provide an online survey-type tool called the data collection instrument for the actual reporting component of the program. As of this publication, the final version of this tool is not yet live, but CMS has provided a PDF version, which is what we used to create this guide. Importantly, the instrument uses skip logic, which means the selections you make in the early part of the survey dictate what questions you will see later in the process. In other words, not every data element we cover in this presentation will apply to your agency. With this in mind, we recommend you apply the following questions as you review the material:

 Does this data element apply to my agency?  If so, is it currently being tracked?  If yes, am I tracking it in a way that conforms to the program?  If not, what do I need to do to track it in the required way?

The Basics of the Program

1. CMS will send notification via mail/email to the correspondence address listed in your PECOS record and associated with your NPI, addressed to the Authorized Official on file. 2. You have 30 days to respond, indicating if you will collect data according to calendar year or fiscal year. Failure to respond automatically enrolls you in the calendar year option. 3. Once the collection period commences, you will need to track the data points relevant to your agency, in a way that enables you to then report those data points in the manner dictated by CMS. 4. Once your collection year is complete, a period will commence in which your agency will have up to 5 months to report. To do this, CMS will provide an online survey-type tool. 5. If an agency fails to report within the 5-month reporting period, or if the data provided is deemed insufficient, CMS will take no longer than 3 months after the close of the reporting period to decide if the 10% penalty is warranted. This penalty would be assessed on Medicare payments for DOS in the calendar year that follows the decision to impose the penalty.

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