Home Health & Hospice Week

Learn from one agency's citation under the new CoPs.

The new Home Health Conditions of Participation that took effect in January are complex and overwhelming, but there's one new requirement that is easy to get right - if you know the ropes.

Under the Patient's Rights CoP 484.50(a)(1)(ii), the home health agency must provide "contact information for the HHA administrator, including the administrator's name, business address, and business phone number in order to receive complaints."

Pitfall: In a recent HHA survey, a surveyor cited an agency for not furnishing the administrator's business address in the Notice of Rights. "The agency assumed the patient knew the administrator's address was the agency address" printed on all their forms, etc., relates attorney Robert Markette Jr. with Hall Render in Indianapolis.

Do this: "Even though this will seem redundant, state the address again" with the other administrator contact information, Markette advises.

That's not all: In addition to actually providing the administrator info and everything else included in the Patient's Rights CoP, the agency must document that it provided the notice before treatment commenced, points out attorney Liz Pearson with Pearson & Bernard in Edgewood, Kentucky. Specifically, the CoPs specify that agencies must "provide the patient and the patient's legal representative (if any), the ... information during the initial evaluation visit, in advance of furnishing care to the patient."

To prove it fulfilled this requirement, Pearson suggests agencies use "an overall form completed of the explanation of the rights," including the administrator's contact information, she tells Eli. "The patient and or caregiver sign and date this form and note the time to show that it occurred before any treatments," she says.

This fulfills the requirement in 484.50(a)(2) to "obtain the patient's or legal representative's signature confirming that he or she has received a copy of the notice of rights and responsibilities."

Another address risk: In 484.50(c)(10), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also specifies that "the patient has the right to be advised of the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the following Federally-funded and state-funded entities that serve the area where the patient resides:

(i) Agency on Aging,
(ii) Center for Independent Living,
(iii) Protection and Advocacy Agency,
(iv) Aging and Disability Resource Center; and
(v) Quality Improvement Organization."

Names and phone numbers aren't enough. Don't let surveyors give you an easy citation for failing to include the addresses for these entities also, Markette urges.

Note: See the CoPs final rule at www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-01-13/pdf/2017-00283.pdf.