Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospices eager to comply with the revamped Conditions of Participation that take effect Dec. 2 aren't getting much help from Medicare yet.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is still working on the interpretive guidelines for the CoPs, CMS' Kim Roche said in the Aug. 13 Open Door Forum for home care providers. The guidelines will have to go through the clearance process, so there's no date set for publication.

However: CMS has scheduled surveyor training on the CoPs for Nov. 18-20, Roche revealed. One representative from each national hospice trade group will be able to attend, she said in response to a question from Kim Skehan with the Connecticut Association for Home Care & Hospice.

Another CoP issue: CMS declined to answer questions about the DME accreditation requirement in the CoPs during the call. But on Aug. 19, the agency sent a followup clarification about the requirements for DME suppliers that furnish equipment to hospice patients (see related story, p. 235). At a minimum, suppliers will have to be working toward September 2009 accreditation when the hospice CoPs take effect.

Several hospices also raised concerns about the new hospice visit charges they're generating showing up on beneficiaries' Medicare Summary Notices (MSNs). Patients could think providers are overbilling or getting a lot more money than they are.

The MSN does show Medicare provider charges, but it also shows the Medicare payment amount and whether the hospice patient should be seeing the bill, a CMS official said.