Beware: Short Stay Inpatient Audits from Livanta

Livanta is sending documentation requests for short stay inpatient audits.

Livanta, the Beneficiary and Family Centered Care-Quality Improvement Organization (BFCC-QIO) auditor, has started sending out documentation requests for short stay inpatient audits, according to an online forum for utilization review professionals.

As part of the process, Livanta will select 30 inpatient admissions of Medicare beneficiaries whose inpatient length of stay (LOS) was either zero or one day within the prior three months from selected hospitals, according to Dr Ronald Hirsch, who is the vice president of R1 RCM. 

“You will have 30 days to submit the records to Livanta,” said Hirsch in an email to RACmonitor. “Livanta will fax the ADR to the number on the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the hospital. If there is no fax number, they will mail it via USPS.”

Hirsch urged cautioned in reading the ADR for instructions to submit the records properly, adding “check your MOA to ensure the information is up to date.”

“The use of occurrence span code 72 is commonly used to indicate that the patient has passed two necessary midnights in the hospital but less than two as inpatient, but the presence of this code will not exempt the admission from audit,” said Hirsch. “Do not be alarmed by inclusion of these (because) if the care was necessary and passed two midnights, they should not be denied.”

Hirsch explained that Livanta will offer a discussion period to discuss any potential denials and urged every facility to take advantage of this discussion period to provide new information and understand the rationale for the denial.

Programming Note: Listen to Dr. Ronald Hirsch every Monday on Monitor Mondays, 10 Eastern.