Fifteen business days is not a lot of time to assemble a claim-by-claim rebuttal — especially if the Qlarant letter sat in the mail for several days before you opened it. The good news: extensions are being granted. The better news: the email you have to send is three sentences long. Here is exactly what to write, where to send it, and what we have observed actually happens after you click send.

If you have not yet read the underlying playbook, start with our 15-Business-Day Rebuttal Playbook — the extension only buys you time; the rebuttal still has to do real work.

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Where to Send the Request

Email it to:

adminactions_upicw@qlarant.com

This is the same Administrative Actions desk inside the Western Unified Program Integrity Contractor at Qlarant that processes the rebuttals themselves. There is no form, no portal, and no fax requirement. Plain email.

What to Put in the Email Body

Two pieces of identifying information are non-negotiable:

  • NPI — your hospice’s National Provider Identifier
  • PTAN — your Provider Transaction Access Number (the 10-character Medicare billing identifier on your remittance advices)

Without both, the request cannot be matched to your suspension file, and you will get a request for clarification — burning days you do not have.

The Exact Template

Subject line: Extension Request — Notice of Suspension Rebuttal — [Your Hospice Name]

Body:

Good [morning | afternoon | evening], We received the letter copy on [Received Date]. We would like to request the extension to file for a rebuttal. NPI: [NPI] PTAN: [PTAN] Thank you very much, [Your Name] [Your Title] [Your Hospice Name]

That is it. There is no requirement to justify the request, attach documentation, or argue the merits of your case. The administrative-actions team is not the panel that will read your rebuttal — they are the schedulers.

What Actually Happens Next

From a real example we walked through this week:

  • Hospice received the electronic copy of the Notice of Suspension on Monday, April 27, 2026.
  • Hospice sent the extension request email the same morning.
  • Qlarant replied the same day: “Your request for an extension to submit your rebuttal is granted. Your new rebuttal due date is June 1, 2026.”

The original 15-business-day deadline in that case would have fallen on roughly May 15. The granted extension pushed it to June 1 — about two extra weeks beyond the standard window. Your mileage will vary, but the pattern we are seeing is: prompt, polite, brief requests get prompt grants.

Best Practices Before You Hit Send

  • Send it the day you receive the letter. Do not let the request sit in someone’s drafts folder. The 15-business-day clock is running whether you have asked for an extension or not.
  • Send from a hospice email domain — not a personal Gmail. Reviewers are matching domains to the entity name and PTAN.
  • Use the hospice’s legal name in the subject and signature, not a DBA.
  • BCC your compliance consultant or counsel if you have one engaged. Keeps the paper trail in their hands too.
  • Save the granted-extension email immediately. That email is your proof of the new deadline if anything later gets confused.

What an Extension Does Not Do

An extension buys time. It does nothing else. Specifically:

  • It does not lift the suspension. Payments stay frozen during the extended window, just as they do during the original window.
  • It does not change the standard you have to meet. You still owe a claim-by-claim rebuttal under 42 C.F.R. § 405.372(b), with documentation that the example claims met every applicable Medicare coverage and payment requirement.
  • It does not pause the 60-day overpayment clock. If your rebuttal preparation surfaces an overpayment in any other claim, you remain statutorily required to return it within 60 days under § 1128J(d)(2) of the Social Security Act.
  • It does not stop denials. Claims continue to process, and any denials issued during the suspension carry their own appeal deadlines under § 405.903(d). Calendar those separately.

If Your Request Is Denied (Plan for It Anyway)

The Qlarant letter itself frames extensions as case-by-case. We have not yet seen a denial of a polite, timely request, but you should not bet payroll on the granted extension — you should bet on it as a margin of safety. Build the rebuttal on the assumption that the original 15-business-day deadline holds, and treat any granted extension as found time to tighten the documentation, not a license to relax.

Rebuttal Support: $300/hour

The extension is the easy part. The rebuttal — per-claim documentation, regulatory citations, and a narrative that addresses each specific allegation in the letter — is the hard part. Our consultants work alongside your counsel to assemble the package, audit for documentation gaps, and stress-test the narrative before you submit.

Schedule a Consultation

Further Reading

The Bottom Line

If you got the Qlarant Notice of Suspension and the calendar feels impossible, the extension request is the lowest-effort, highest-value email you will send this month. Three sentences, one email address, two identifiers. Send it now — then go back to building the rebuttal that actually decides the outcome.