Home Health & Hospice Week

Make patient, treatment changes the cornerstone of your documentation for hypertension patients. Don't write off your long-stay hypertension patients who are in legitimate need of skilled services. Follow these expert tips to head off denials for this group of patients. 1. Understand Medicare coverage criteria. You can avoid denials by doing your best to furnish only care that will be covered by Medicare. To do this, you need to understand the underlying coverage criteria, urges consultant Lynda Laff with Laff Associates in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Read through the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual chapter on home health services (Chapter 7) for the details your care must comply with. The manual chapter is at www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Guidance/Manuals/downloads//bp102c07.pdf. Even if your patient has a skilled need, Medicare won't cover it endlessly (see related story, this page). For observation and assessment, which was the top denial reason in HHH MAC CGS's edit, when the [...]