Home Health & Hospice Week

Make sure your patients’ election statements comply with new rules Oct. 1.

You have new attending physician requirements to get up to speed on, and only a few short weeks to do it.

As of Oct. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will require that your hospice pa-tients’ election statements identify the patient’s attending physician sufficiently (see related story, p. 243). And when changing attendings, CMS instructs that your files should include:

• information such as the physician’s full name, office address, or NPI number;
• the date the change is to be effective;
• the date that the statement is signed;
• the patient’s (or representative’s) signature; and
• an acknowledgement that this change in the attending physician is the patient’s (or representative’s) choice.

Tip: "The effective date of the change in attending physician cannot be earlier than the date the statement is signed," CMS points out in the 2015 hospice payment final rule published in the Aug. 22 Federal Register.

CMS is not issuing a standard form for attending changes, CMS staffer Hillary Loeffler confirmed in the agency’s Aug. 20 Open Door Forum for home care and hospice providers. Hospices can use any form that includes the required content, and they must keep the documentation in the patient record, Loeffler said in response to a caller.

Also, "the patient (or representative) does not need to complete a new election form" when the attending changes, CMS clarifies in the rule.