Home Health & Hospice Week

Keep an eye on narratives for a few more months.

While home health agencies aren’t glad about their new physician record duties for face-to-face, they are glad to see the last of the physician narrative. But it will be a while before they are truly free of the fiasco, thanks to medical review of current and past claims.

Effective date: Elimination of the F2F physician encounter narrative will take effect Jan. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in its home health prospective payment system final rule issued Oct. 30. “Although we are eliminating the narrative requirement prospectively, the narrative requirement continues to apply to services furnished during episodes that begin before January 1, 2015,” CMS confirms in the rule published in the Nov. 6 Federal Register.

“CMS did not offer relief for home health episode payment denials incurred under current narrative requires and did not offer additional guidance or training for Medicare auditors,” the Visiting Nurse Associations of America criticizes in a release about the final rule.

“We are delighted that CMS has heard and acted upon our recommendations to eliminate the daunting physician narrative requirement in the face-to-face encounter rule,” says National Association for Home Care & Hospice President Val Halamandaris in a statement. “NAHC will continue fighting for the industry to get relief for past claims denied since this change only applies starting January 1.”