Face-To-Face:
Industry Calls For 5 Major Face-To-Face Changes
Published on Thu Sep 27, 2012
CMS could streamline the requirement without a legislative change.The F2F burden is crushing many home care providers, and the feds could significantly lighten the burden -- if they want to.The 130+ commenters on the 2013 proposed rule for the home health prospective payment system update are exhorting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to make a host of changes to improve the physician face-to-face encounter requirement. Here are some of the most popular:1. Rescind the documentation portion. Many commenters asked CMS to simply chuck the narrative part of the requirement as duplicative of other information in the plan of care. Congress did not direct CMS to create such a requirement, they say (see related story, p. 270)."Home care agencies agree with the need for the patient to be seen by a physician 90 days prior to or 30 days after admission to home health," says the Texas Association for Home [...]