Home Health Line
01/12/2015
Industry experts argue that it’s unrealistic to expect patients’ medical records to contain the level of detail CMS outlined in a recent open door forum. As a result, some fear the risk for denials may be no less than when the narrative was required.  
 
01/12/2015
Agencies can expect increased review of claims now that CMS announced the official restart of their recovery audit contractor (RAC) reviews. All home health, hospice and durable medical equipment (DME) providers will be reviewed by one national contractor, Connolly LLC. 
 
01/12/2015
The Labor Department’s companionship regulation has been put on hold following a federal judge’s Dec. 31 decision to suspend Labor’s new definition of companionship services.
 
01/12/2015
A spouse in a legally valid same-sex marriage has the same rights under HIPAA as a spouse in an opposite-sex marriage for the purposes of use and disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI), according to recent guidance from HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
 
01/12/2015
If a clinician discovers that a patient has an open wound yet she does not have orders to treat that wound, she cannot treat it — even if she just wants to put a simple gauze dressing on it. Acting without orders could result in deficiencies during a survey.
 
01/12/2015
As of Jan. 1, Medicare administrative contractor (MAC) CGS has begun reviewing face-to-face encounter documentation when scrutinizing any home health episode — not just the initial episode — for appropriateness.  
 
01/12/2015
Primary diagnoses in category 998 (a surgical wound complication that often requires expensive dressings) were the least profitable in home health in 2013. That’s according to data from Seattle-based National Research Corporation showing the industry’s least profitable primary diagnoses. The data are representative of more than 1 million PPS episodes in 2013. The information came from more than 2,000 provider locations nationwide and is based on standard episodes. 
 

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