Hospice Business: What We Hear
Hospice providers are continuing to play a critical role at the end stages of a patient’s life. More and more families are aware of this and push relatives to make …
Hospice Election Period Changes
This month is bringing some significant changes to the way hospice providers handle election periods. Effective July 2, 2018, the Common Working File (CWF also known as FISS DDE) has …
Medicare Beneficiary Numbers – New Medicare Numbers and IDs
Medicare numbers are now in the process of being replaced. Member’s current HICN will be replaced with an alphanumeric combination called the Medicare Beneficiary Number (MBI). MBIs will be randomly …
Publicly Traded Spotlight: Amedisys & Private Duty
Amedisys has been doing something that started a couple years ago and caught many by surprise. Their acquisition of private duty home care providers seems to be gaining steam. Starting …
Hospice News: California Aide-in-Dying Law
The controversial law which allows patients to expedite the dying process has been put on hold by a state judge in California. Physicians are barred from prescribing any lethal drugs …
Department of Labor Lawsuits – Home Health
The DOL has filed new lawsuits against 5 different home health and home care providers across the county. In the suits filed, the DOL is going after providers for failing …
Hospice Quality Assurance Updates and Tips
Quality of care tracking and reporting is becoming a much larger component of operations for hospices. CMS is actively working on providing more data to the public through various methods …
CMS Allows Medicare Advantage Homemaker Coverage
In April, we learned that CMS was opening Medicare Advantage plans up to include coverage for homemaker services. While this is great for patients, you can expect more traditional Medicare …
Hospice 2019 Proposed Rule
Most hospices will like some aspects of the proposed rule for 2019 but some might not. These are just proposed changes for 2019, not what will actually happen. However, the …
Pre-Claim Review Coming Back for Home Health
CMS has introduced a new round of pre-claim reviews for home health agencies and the likelihood of it becoming a reality is getting closer than ever. This next round adds …