NAHC files federal lawsuit involving face-to-face documentation

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) filed a federal lawsuit June 5 as part of its efforts to combat face-to-face regulations. The face-to-face lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., claims CMS violated Medicare law.

 

Among the claims: “CMS violated The U.S. Constitution and the Medicare Act by failing to provide adequate, reasonable and clear guidance on the standards for compliance,” NAHC says. The federal Medicare agency “must explain what constitutes ‘sufficient’ narratives.” CMS also violated Medicare law by letting contractors deny payment based solely upon “the sufficiency of the physician narratives without reviewing the entire patient record to determine whether the patient is, in fact, homebound and in need of skilled care,” NAHC says.

 

“We filed the suit reluctantly only after we tried to make CMS understand that their regulation was redundant, amounted to bureaucratic overkill, created disincentives for physicians to order home care services and was leading to the loss of care by thousands of Medicare patients who are so sick that they cannot leave home without assistance,” NAHC President Val Halamandaris says in a release.