Home Health Line
09/22/2014
Starting Oct. 1, hospices may no longer assign specific dementia codes as a primary diagnosis on a hospice claim form, according to CMS Transmittal 3032/Change Request 8877, published on Aug. 22.
 
 
09/22/2014
For hospice patients who received care from Jan. 1, 2014, through June 30, 2014, the average length of stay for non-cancer patients within Medicare administrative contractor Palmetto GBA’s coverage area was 140 days, according to Palmetto data. The average length of stay during the same timeframe in 2013 was 134 days.
 
 
09/22/2014
The data below show the required number of visits per day by discipline, compared with the actual number of visits per day performed. 
09/22/2014
The data below show the average number of visits per day performed by discipline. 
09/15/2014
CMS’ plan — as stated in the proposed 2015 home health rule — to require a patient’s medical record contain evidence of the patient’s eligibility for Medicare home health has been interpreted in various ways and has elicited dozens of comments.
09/15/2014
The number of immediate jeopardy citations — situations that cause potential or real patient harm — imposed following CMS surveys increased each year from 2010 through 2013. And the industry is on pace for even more immediate jeopardies this year, data CMS provided to HHL show.
09/15/2014
Clinicians reading CMS’ draft OASIS-C1/ICD-9 guidance manual instructions for M2002 (Medication follow-up) should take care to note that the phrase “without physician involvement” does not signify a shift in guidance for answering this process measure item.
09/15/2014
Educating patients about proper nutrition, using telehealth and supplying patients with heart-failure kits has allowed VNA, Western Pennsylvania to have a rehospitalization rate of less than 2% for those within the agency’s heart failure program.
09/15/2014
CMS has released the first version of its quality assurance guidelines for the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) hospice survey.
09/15/2014
Agencies in 19 states have had immediate jeopardy situations since 2009, according to data CMS provided to HHL.

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