Home Health & Hospice Week
CMS BACKTRACKS ON DIAGNOSIS CODING INSTRUCTIONS
Home health agencies can breathe a sigh of relief that they won't have to take on onerous new coding processes for verifying diagnosis codes with physicians. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will NOT require agencies to check diagnosis code choices for patients with their physicians for every case, every time as CMS had instructed at its OASIS Coordinators Conference earlier this month, a CMS spokesperson says. Nor will agencies have to document the interactions, since they won't be required. Conference attendees immediately protested the instructions, voicing strident opposition to the idea that HHAs have always been required to go to such lengths (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 13, Diagnosis Coding). HHAs already beset by other OASIS burdens will welcome this clarification, since "confirming ICD codes with MDs would have been a difficult task to coordinate for agencies," notes coding consultant Joan Usher with Pembroke, MA-based JLU Health Record Systems.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Outcomes:
READY OR NOT, HERE COMES 'HOME HEALTH COMPARE'
Widespread errors with administrative data on the soon-to-be-unveiled Home Health Compare Web site will make [...] - Benchmarking:
A BENCHMARK A DAY KEEPS THE REVIEWER AWAY
If you can't explain why your utilization differs from that of home health agencies in [...] - Diagnosis Coding:
CMN DOESN'T NEED TO JUSTIFY DIAGNOSIS CODE, CMS SAYS
You may still be in the dark as to which ICD-9 code to put on [...] - Survey & Certification:
OBQI TRAINING NOT RISKY, QIOs INSIST
Quality Improvement Organizations swear they aren't tattletales for surveyors, but home health agencies still aren't [...] - Infusion:
AT YOUR SERVICE, IV PROVIDERS TELL MEDICARE
Instead of paying per widget, the home infusion industry wants Medicare to pay per diem [...] - HIPAA:
FEDS PROPOSE HIPAA CONSEQUENCES
With the deadline for the HIPAA privacy regulation past, the penalties for non-compliance with the [...] - Compliance:
OIG SHEDS LIGHT ON CORPORATE COMPLIANCE IN HEALTH CARE
If your home care organization fails to implement and maintain a compliance plan, it's your [...] - Diagnosis Coding:
CMS BACKTRACKS ON DIAGNOSIS CODING INSTRUCTIONS
Home health agencies can breathe a sigh of relief that they won't have to take [...] - Industry Notes:
DRAFT SPECS FOR NEXT OASIS VERSION RELEASED
The home health industry is one step closer to V code implementation with new data [...]
