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When CMS announced the Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (MOON), a multidisciplinary team at UCHC/John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington, CT, developed a form and a process that would meet the requirements of both the state of Connecticut and CMS.
Since 2014, the state of Connecticut requires hospitals to provide both written and oral notification to patients in observation for 24 hours or longer.
A team that included the utilization review committee, case managers, and representatives from the compliance department collaborated on the new form, says Mary Laucks, RN, CCM, senior director of specialty services at the 234-bed general medical and surgical academic medical center, part of UConn Health.
“The goal of the committee was to develop a form that we could give to all patients. We felt like if we added a form just for the Medicare patients to all the other paperwork the case managers deal with, we might miss someone,” Laucks says.
Case management representatives on the team included Laucks, the case management supervisor, and a staff case manager.
“Since the case managers on the floor are the ones who are going to fill out the form and deliver it, I...