Home Health Line Breaking News
07/27/2012

If you ever lose patient data, make sure your follow-up is as diligent as that of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Home Hospice.

The hospice’s Chicago offices were burglarized June 11 and six laptops and tablets were stolen.

07/25/2012

Hospices will see a net 0.9% increase in their payments starting Oct. 1, according to the hospice wage index published July 24.

The wage index also includes a requirement for hospices to report all “co-existing or additional diagnoses."

 

07/23/2012

It’s shaping up to be a trend: A Hawaii agency is the second home health employer within a month to write a six-figure check following an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discrimination lawsuit.

07/20/2012

Region C Recovery Auditor Connolly will review home health and hospice records to determine whether services were medically necessary.

Both issues are unusual for a RAC, as these contractors usually focus on automated reviews.

07/19/2012

The second set of publicly reported patient satisfaction scores posted today is a mixed bag at best, with only one score showing improvement while two are down slightly from the April update of Home Health Compare.

07/18/2012

A new HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report has found that several companies bidding for zone program integrity contractor (ZPIC) contracts had conflicting business relationships with other segments of Medicare that could potentially affect CMS’ efforts to fight fraud. 

07/17/2012

(This story was updated at 4 pm on July 23)

CMS is implementing a new safeguard to protect the privacy of patients who respond to the HH-CAHPS survey, but the change limits the availability of data you can use to improve your agency’s performance on patient satisfaction.


 

07/11/2012

CMS expects to know a final date for the long-awaited outlier fix within days.

The federal Medicare agency shared this and other updates during the July 11 open-door forum.

07/10/2012

On Monday, the department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that as of July 1, 2012, there were 9 new accountable care organizations (ACO) serving 1.2 million Medicare beneficiaries. 

07/06/2012

(Updated at 4:30pm on July 9)

The proposed 2013 PPS rule for home health contains a net 0.1% payment cut, intermediate sanctions for CMS surveys and additional flexibility for the face-to-face encounter and therapy reassessment requirements.

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