Hospice Update: 2016 Proposed Rule
Hospice providers will be rejoicing, knowing that reimbursement isn’t going down, but up. For 2016, hospice providers should expect a 1.3% increase from 2015. However, hospice providers will not be …
Dual Eligible Patients: Why did you just get a medicare denial?
CMS’ Financial Alignment Initiative is not only creating reimbursement nightmares for providers, including home health agencies, but also forcing patients to find alternate care at a moment’s notice. In 11 …
Home Health Today – May 2015
The May edition of Home Health Today is here! Read May’s informative edition here!
PEPPER Reports: Data Tools to Help Your Agency Stay Compliant
Coming in July, PEPPER reports (Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report) will be made available for home health agencies. Already available for nursing homes, hospitals and other inpatient providers, …
What We Hear: May, 2015
Agencies that continue to struggle need to look at their operations and understand that adding people to fix a process does not work. Fixing a process and improving that process, …
CoP Spotlight: Quarterly Clinical Reviews
Many smaller agencies sometimes find it difficult to focus on performing clinical reviews. But the Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoPs) actually require your agency to do so. In agencies …
Plan for the Summer and Start the Fall with Growth
As the summer quickly approaches, many agencies experience a drop in patient census and an increase in staff vacation requests. Agencies should try to have the final summer time-off schedules …
Face to Face Compliance Updates
CMS has finalized some important changes to the way agencies must stay in compliance with F2F data gathering and timing of physician certification. Signed Physician Certification: Many agencies wait to …
Human resources: Documentation is key to compliance
In many agencies, large and small, the burden of human resources is always lingering. Whether a dedicated employee manages HR, or it’s a split function between various staff, documentation must …
Can you provide continuous home care under medicare?
Updated regulations, as a result of a lawsuit against CMS, provide a distinctive change for patients who are in need of continued home care services. The definition of home care …