Home Health & Hospice Week

Take the guesswork out of the physician narrative requirement. You have less than one month to comply with the new physician narrative requirement -- but you don't have to go it alone. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services demands that beginning October 1, physicians must include "a brief narrative explanation of the clinical findings that support a life expectancy of [six] months or less" when they certify (or recertify) hospice patients as being terminally ill, according to the final hospice rule published in the August 6 Federal Register. Good news: Regional home health intermediary Cahaba GBA is helping you streamline this potentially headache-inducing process. The RHHI offers this sample document* as a guideline for all  hospices to use as they develop policies and procedures for complying with the physician narrative requirement: * Cahaba included a disclaimer that each agency must ensure its certification and recertification forms are correct. View the [...]