Home Health Line
01/27/2014
The number of home health agency/hospice requests for appeals hearings before administrative law judges (ALJ) over claims denials rose significantly last year from 11,677 in 2012 to 26,710 in 2013, the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA) reports.
 
 
01/27/2014
Each face-to-face form must now include two sets of criteria that CMS added to the definition of homebound status last October, CMS announced in a Jan. 14 MLN Matters article. The narratives that physicians’ offices provide must also include as much patient-specific information as possible to prove the patient is homebound. Simply listing diagnoses, recent injuries or procedures is not sufficient to make this case; nor is vague language such as “gait abnormality” or “generalized weakness,” CMS says.
 
 
01/27/2014
Educate referral sources about the increased level of specificity they’ll need to provide to minimize productivity loss and prevent denials in the future.
 
 
01/27/2014
Agencies can get the level of specificity they need by revising their intake processes.
 
 
01/27/2014
As more nursing graduates with little home health experience enter the field eager to work, make sure your agency has a detailed, well-structured nursing orientation plan in place, as it can pay dividends in employee satisfaction, retention and, eventually, productivity and outcomes.
 
 
01/27/2014
Home health sales reps need to have a more diverse skill set today than they did five years ago because hospitals are under pressure to reduce readmissions and are increasingly using this criterion to refer patients for post-discharge care. But it’s hard to find sales reps who can explain to hospital clinicians how your agency will meet their patients’ health care needs and describe to executives the extent to which this will improve the hospital’s bottom line. Be prepared to provide training to new recruits so they can engage convincingly with both audiences.
 
 
01/27/2014
Gradually reduce the percentage your agency pays toward employees’ health insurance premiums to help your agency cut costs without negativelyaffecting retention.
01/27/2014
On average, home health agencies contribute 76.5% of employee health insurance premiums, according to data from the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service in Oakland, N.J., which publishes the 2013-2014 HOMECARE Salary & Benefits Report annually in cooperation with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.
01/27/2014
Use this sample intake form from in A.D. Maxim Consulting in Troy, Mich., to help gather the proper information your agency will need from physicians under ICD-10.
 

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