Indications and Limitations of Coverage
A. General Requirements for Coverage of Hospital Beds
A physician's prescription and such additional documentation as the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) medical staff may consider necessary, including medical records and physicians' reports, must establish the medical necessity for a hospital bed due to one of the following reasons:
B. Physician's Prescription
The physician's prescription, which must accompany the initial claim, and supplementing documentation when required, must establish that a hospital bed is medically necessary. If the stated reason for the need for a hospital bed is the patient's condition requires positioning, the prescription or other documentation must describe the medical condition, e.g., cardiac disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, quadriplegia or paraplegia, and also the severity and frequency of the symptoms of the condition that necessitates a hospital bed for positioning.
If the stated reason for requiring a hospital bed is the patient's condition requires special attachments, the prescription must describe the patient's condition and specify the attachments that require a hospital bed.
C. Variable Height Feature
In well documented cases, the MAC medical staff may determine that a variable height feature of a hospital bed, approved for coverage under subsection A above, is medically necessary and, therefore, covered, for one of the following conditions:
D. Electric Powered Hospital Bed Adjustments
Electric powered adjustments to lower and raise head and foot may be covered when the MAC medical staff determines that the patient's condition requires frequent change in body position and/or there may be an immediate need for a change in body position (i.e., no delay can be tolerated) and the patient can operate the controls and cause the adjustments. Exceptions may be made to this last requirement in cases of spinal cord injury and brain damaged patients.
E. Side Rails
If the patient's condition requires bed side rails, they can be covered when an integral part of, or an accessory to, a hospital bed.