Protected Health Information & the Medicare Cost Report

Protected Health Information (PHI) is defined as individually identifiable health information that is transmitted or maintained in an electronic format or any other medium. An example of PHI that is commonly associated with a cost report is a provider prepared Medicare bad debt listing that supports the debts claimed on the cost report. Another example is a Medicaid day listing that hospitals use to support the disproportionate share payment claimed on the cost report.

The safeguarding of PHI is a high priority for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and WPS. Consequently, to help prevent PHI from falling into the wrong hands, we are asking providers that submit documentation containing PHI, e.g., a bad debt listing, with their "as submitted" cost report or at the time of audit, to do so in an electronic format, preferably on a compact disk (CD). The CD should be password protected and the password communicated to the WPS Audit Supervisor responsible for your facility. This provides a level of protection not available with paper.

Page Last Updated: Friday, 06-Nov-2009 14:05:39 CST