Home Health Line
04/26/2010

Congress extends 2009 physician rates again. Physicians will continue to get 2009 Medicare rates for care plan oversight and home health certification and recertification through May 31, assuming there’s no

04/19/2010
There’s a new requirement for physicians to have face-to-face visits with patients within six months preceding a home health referral, “or other reasonable time frame decided by CMS.”
04/19/2010

CMS’s two-year post-acute care demonstration indicates that a universal patient-assessment tool may reduce hospitalizations and save Medicare money.

04/19/2010

Home health agencies could experience more rigorous state surveys under new survey protocols CMS is preparing for use as soon as next month.

04/19/2010

Hospices and consultants have started to analyze how a “U-shaped” payment model might affect payments, and it doesn’t look good for hospice patients cared for in the home.

04/19/2010
Look for details about hospice-related health reform provisions in the proposed home health PPS rule, expected in August.
04/19/2010

CMS’s standardized patient-satisfaction tool has been translated into only five languages, making agencies with large numbers of non-English speaking patients wonder whether it’s worth it to conduct the surveys at

04/19/2010

Don’t expect that 2.5% increase in overall home health rates that sweetened this year’s outlier payment changes to continue in 2011. Starting next year, in fact, the new health care

04/19/2010

Focus your private duty marketing efforts on elder law attorneys and trust officers, and you will hit a jackpot of untapped referral sources.

04/12/2010
Attorneys predict home health will be one of the first industries required to have compliance programs under the new health care reform law. For many agencies, that could mean they

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