Home Health & Hospice Week

New stricter guidelines will require physicians to date signatures themselves starting Jan. 1. On top of face to face encounter changes straining your relationships with your referring physicians in the new year, you soon will have to get tough with docs about dating their own signatures. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services "has clarified that physicians must sign and date hospice certifications and home health Plans of Care, verbal orders, and certifications," regional home health intermediary Cahaba GBA says in a notice on its website. "This changes Cahaba's longstanding policy of accepting a date stamp as proof of timeliness in lieu of a physician dating his/her signature." Deadline: "This change is effective for allclaims submitted on or after January 1, 2011," Cahaba says. CMS told contractors about its interpretation in a conference call in mid-November, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice says in its member newsletter. It's [...]