Home Health & Hospice Week

Keep field staff focused on care with this cheat sheet.

To stay in compliance--and keep your sanity--during the transition to Medicare's new home health advance beneficiary notice you should know for sure when it is unnecessary to issue a notice, coach the experts.

At the Aug. 15 Home Health, Hospice & DME Open Door Forum, CMS called listeners' attention to basics about exceptions to HHABN requirements.

You don't have to issue an HHABN when you change the mix of services provided to a patient, reminded CMS' Elizabeth Carmody.

Example 1: A beneficiary is receiving physical therapy three times a week. The therapist changes the beneficiary from a walker to a cane while continuing to visit at the same frequency. No HHABN is required.

Example 2: A beneficiary receives skilled nursing services three times a week. If the agency discontinues one service but continues seeing the patient three times a week, no HHABN is required.

For more general guidance on when not to issue an HHABN, keep the following chart on hand:

Exceptions to HHABN Notification Requirements--Home Health Benefit