Home Health & Hospice Week

Caution: Educational resources are scarce.

How will you ensure the free flow of documentation between your certifying physicians and your agency for face-to-face? The task may seem impossible, but you can at least make progress with some coping strategies.

“We are expecting problems getting adequate documentation from MDs,” cautions Judy Adams with Adams Home Care Consulting in Asheville, N.C. Minimize your potential problems with this advice:

1. Put on your teacher hat. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has furnished little to no physician education on the new F2F requirements, notes the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. “The reality is that [HHAs must] teach the MDs about the change in the requirement — while making it sound simpler,” says Lynda Laff with Laff Associates in Hilton Head Island, S.C.

2. Correct misinformation. In the absence of education from CMS or their own Part B Medicare Administrative Contractors, “misinformation and uncertainty [are] swirling around the new Physician Face-to-Face Requirements,” notes the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts on its website. Clearly communicate to your docs that the requirements have not been repealed or even delayed, HCAM stresses.

3. Use resources. There may not be a lot in the way of educational materials, but you can use some resources to educate your docs. First, you can send out a brief notice alerting them to the rule basics. HCAM offers one for hospitals and physicians online at https://thinkhomecare.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/f2f-rule-change-guides-released-by-hca.

You can also cite CMS resources such as the Home Health PPS final rule (https://federalregister.gov/a/2014-26057), materials from the December National Provider Call (www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/NPC/National-Provider-Calls-and-Events-Items/2014-12-16-Home-Health-Benefit.html), and a Jan. 8 MLN Matters article on the new requirements (www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/ Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNMatters Articles/downloads/SE1436.pdf). However, CMS has yet to update any of its manuals with information about the new requirements.

To hear more about the F2F provisions in the 2015 final rule, sign up for the Eli-sponsored Feb. 25 audioconference “New Home Health Final Rule for 2015 & The Newly Proposed Con-ditions Of Participation” presented by expert Sharon Litwin, at www.audioeducator.com/home-health/home-health-final-rule-01-29-2015.html.

4. Track it. Set up a tracking system to make sure you are sending out your information and receiving required information as soon as possible, Laff says.