Home Health & Hospice Week

The surveyor will be checking.

Don’t forget, it’s not enough to formulate your discharge policy to comply with the requirements of 42 CFR 484.50(d)(1) through (7) (see box, p. 27).

Home health agencies “are required to provide physical or electronic documents for the patient’s keeping that outline the acceptable reasons for discharge or transfer” under those requirements, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in the Conditions of Participation final rule.

HHAs don’t have to include their admissions policies in those notices as originally proposed, at least, CMS allows. “Disclosure of admission policies is not necessary as the patient would already be admitted to the HHA before any such disclosure would take place, rendering the disclosure unnecessary,” according to the rule.

Checking up: “We expect that verification of distribution of this notice would be incorporated into a home visit made by a state surveyor,” CMS warns.