Immediate Release Contact: Mark Thomas August 10. 2017 David Sims Healthcare Laws Authorize Practices That Were Criticized by State Auditor in Recent Hospital Report (Unionville. MO) -- Hospital Partners Inc. issued the following statements and inlorrnation regarding the MO State Auditor's recent report. As a rural hospital critical access hospital Putnam County Memorial Hospital is authorized by law to assign and bill for clinical laboratory testing provided at a reterence lab. The "nonApatient' clinical lab testing is an essential part at providing local revenue tor the hospital to olfset linancial loms rural critical access hospitals typically incur. These are not new laws. but instead have been in place for decades. The gross mischaracterization of this standard practice by the State Auditor's Olfice has led to inaccurate conclusions and potential limitations at access tor the local patients being sewed by the hospital. "The ass'gnment of non-patient lab specimens has been standard practice for ruml and cnfical access hospitals for many years. The purpose of the mral critical access exceptions is to give rural healthcare facilifies a fighting chance to sque and serve their local communities. Reference labs operate by means of a similar clinical protocol the patient does not present to the hospital for the tesh'ng. the patient specimen is sent instead. These provisions simply allow mral/ critical access hospitals to compete," said Mark Thomas, an atlomey who specializes in healthcare compliance. Since Hospital Partners Inc.. has taken over the day-to-day operations of Putnam County Memorial Hospital more than six million dollars has been paid to alleviate much ollhe outstanding debt and allow the hospital to tund critil programs. "We appreciate the Auditor's concerns and take them seriously. We will be reviewing and addressing the procedural findings within the report however. had the Auditor's office referred to the applicable healthcare laws that govern this commonly-accepted practice before issuing the report, we genuinely believe the findings would have been substantially different. We have also reached out to the Attorney Generals office to request a meeting to clarin this issue." said Thomas. -more- The fcilcwing are the relevant prcyisicns: The use cf clinical labcratcry "assignment" a hcspital tc a reference lab is authcriaed by 42 UEC s. and the Medicare Claims Prccessing Manual. Chapter 1a. Secticn 4m- Assignment a hcspital la a lab is limited tc 30% cf all the annual testing tctal just Medicare testing} under 42 USC s. and the Medicare Claims Prccessing Chapter 15, Secticn 40.1. unless the hcspital is a rural hcspital- Critical Access Hcspitais are expressly authcrized tc hill ?nan-patient" clinical lab testing as ?TCre 143:? (?Type cf Bill") claims under the Medicare Claims Prccessing Manual, Chapter 16, Secticn The Medicare Claims Prccessing Manual at Chapter 2, Secticn Ell-4. details and when a 143': is tc billed: "Tc prcperly bill, hcspitals ctherthan CAHs assign type at hill i331 tc all bills cutpatient hcspitai services and TUE 14}: nan-patient {referred} labcratcry specimens. A nan-patient is defined as a bene?ciary that If: neither El'i inpatient an cutpatient Cf a hcspital. but that has a specimen that is submitted analysis la a hcspital and the beneficiary is net physilly present at the hcspital." "We [ccit fcrward tc wanting with all inyciyad tc bring clarity and clcsure tc this issue," stated Themes.